Post #1466561

‘Island in the Sea of Time’ by S. M. Stirling is the first book in a trilogy and an entirely new sub-genre in the Alternate History sphere about an entire community, and all their stuff, (in this case Nantucket) being physically transported to a different point in time (the bronze age). I’m really glad that this idea inspired an entire sub-genre because it’s a good idea and this book sucks. It might sound that many of the following criticisms boil down to the book being 600 pages but no, Alternate Histories tend to be bricks, it’s how those pages are filled. The three main threads of conflict are: the practical problem caused by being cut off from the modern supply-chain, which I would have enjoyed if we had actually seen any of the problems and not just the solutions, the internal conflict about how to approach the outside world, which comes to a head at possibly the worst point of the narrative, and dealing with that outside world which is always subservient to the other two. There are other things I could comment on but they’re less problems and more things that make me assume things about the author (this fetishes katana the way only a white guy with long hair could (oh, look at that author’s photo)). The bottom line is I’m not reading the rest of the series and I’m not recommending this book. #Reading #Books #ScienceFiction