|
| Emperor: Time's Tapestry #1 (Time's Tapestry) | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Baxter
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $7.71
You Save: $17.24 (69%)
New (6) Used (10) from $4.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 243882
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
ASIN: B000X1T2KA
Publication Date: January 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Inscribed in Latin, The Prophecy has resided in the hands of a single family for generations, revealing secrets about the world that is to come, and guiding them to wealth and power...
It begins when a Celtic noble betrays his people at the behest of his mother's belief in The Prophecy and sides with the conquering Roman legions. For the next 400 years, Britannia thrives-as does the family that contributed to Rome's reign over the island with the construction of Emperor Hadrian's Wall and the protection of Emperor Constantine from a coup d'tat.
And even when the sun begins to set on the Roman Empire, The Prophecy remains. For those capable of deciphering its signs and portents, the future of Earth is in their hands
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 ingenious and lovely poem, but awkward implementation of plot January 7, 2007
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
For originality, Baxter's novel strikes well. A nice twist suggesting time travel and the possibility of multiple universes. With a very poetic prophecy as the core of the plot. The poem makes for compelling and repeated reading, harnessing a cadence echoing Shakespeare or Homer. I never knew that Baxter could write poetry, and here he does it well. While Steven Stirling's recommendation on the back cover certainly adds to the allure, as Stirling has made his name with alternate history, whereas this book seems to be Baxter's first try in this field.
Sadly, the actual implementation in the plot falls somewhat short of expectations. The centuries-long duration necessitates characters truncated to a few chapters each. An awkwardness also seen in the historical novels by Michener and Rutherfurd. You start getting interested in a character, and then it is a century later and that person is long dead.
Another problem is related to the Stirling endorsement. Stirling is also renowned for his skill in writing character dialog and military science fiction. People who pick up the book and see his endorsement might assume that this book also contains action scenes. Plus, the plot outline in the dustjacket also suggests this. But the action descriptions are very rudimentary, compared to Stirling's novels, or those of Pournelle, Drake or Weber. If you have read Baxter's earlier novels, this is also consistent. Baxter's forte [at this time] does not extend to action scenes.
Who gave the prophecy is unresolved. For example, is there something akin to the scenarios in Anderson's Time Patrol series, that is sitting uptime in the multiverse, attempting these changes? There will be a sequel to the book, which promises, maybe, to resolve this dangling thread. Or perhaps the intent is for this never to clarified? The latter is certainly fair enough, if done properly. As in Stirling's Nantucket series.
 interesting historical fiction January 2, 2007
5 out of 17 found this review helpful
In 4 BC, Brica struggles with a long difficult labor; as the baby finally begins to come out of the womb, the weakened female begins babbling in Latin, a tongue she does not know. A druid, the only non-kin, attending the birth writes down her words that claim in the future three emperors from Rome will visit the island with one dying. Nectovelin is born while his mother dies. Brica's words live on after her known as the Prophecy".
In 43 AD, Roman General Vespasian invades Britain. Nectovelin tries to make his mother's words come true, but fails in an attempt to assassinate Emperor Claudius. However, Nectovelin's descendents remain diligent waiting for the moment to insure the family Prophecy comes true. In 314, they may have their opportunity as Constantine the Great visits Britannia, but instead of murder, Thalius and others plead with the Emperor to embrace the original Christianity of the first century. By 418, the Roman armies have left the island leaving a vacuum in which British warlords fight one another and the invading Saxons.
EMPEROR is an interesting historical fiction that spans four centuries so no character seems fully developed as events supersede people especially after Nectovelin fails at fulfilling the Prophesy. That twist of having Brica's descendents needing to make sure the Prophesy happens is a fascinating spin to the actual occurrences. Still somewhat overwhelming with over four hundred years of Britannia passing by in under four hundred pages, readers will marvel at Stephen Baxter's opening epic in the Time Tapestry series.
Harriet Klausner
 More rubbish from this formerly promising novelist January 16, 2007
5 out of 18 found this review helpful
I have completely turned 180 degrees from being a fan of Baxtor to absolutely loathing the garbage he's been writing in recent years. He had a good run early on, but has totally lost touch with his base. I loved Ring, The Time Ships, Flux, all the way up to Vacuum Diagrams, which seems to have been a turning point in his career--for the worst. This novel, like all of his recent work, suffers from very weak character development, a highly suspect plot, way too many personal motivations injected into the story, questionable and outdated physics (such as his refusal to give up the preposterous multiverse theory, which Hawking refutes), and his obsession with explicit sexual scenes (a sure sign of a writer's demise). I will never read another ridiculous novel by this former author again.
Great Writing! January 24, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's the first new hard cover novel I've bought from a physical bookstore in about 8 years! But for some reason, I was overcome by the need to read this book now and it's been worth every penny and then some!
If you are in to Celtic and/or Roman history and how these peoples survived one another, and enjoy grand fiction and historical-based epics... this is a book on a grand scheme for sure!!
It's a page turner, and the author is absolutely brilliant in creating many unforgettable scenes and fictional characters who operate within a realm of historical facts and interact with real historical figures - as if rewriting history. You will love one or more of his characters - if not, at least be moved by them.
I think that the plot of the prophecy was a good way to move the two families of characters through time, bringing them back together generation after generation, rewriting history again and again, as if they were cursed.
There are some parts of the book where Baxter tends to go on and on with description, but I can't see the book moving forward without some of those passages, and without them, we couldn't see what the characters saw. There was a couple times within the last 70 pages where I thought he might lose me, but I held on. The book is fast-paced, moves very quickly. I can't believe how adequately he moved through several generations of Romans and Brigantians (& British) in just 300 pages, without losing a step.
The second book is supposed to be coming out in July, 2007. I'll be looking forward to that.
Happy Reading to you all!
Could be an interesting start March 24, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Baxter has obviously read the non-SciFi author Edward Rutherford's books Sarum and London. The similarities on nearly all levels are too coincidental. Injecting a Sci-Fi dimension into a Rutherford model could actually be a lot of entertainment, but that remains to be seen as there's not much of a SciFi component developed in this first installment. I like the story approach well enough to try the next Baxter episode.
I'll buy book #2
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
