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Title: The Depths of Time by Roger Macbride Allen ISBN: 0-553-57497-3 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.37 (19 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Allen moves beyond Star Wars
Comment: The Corellian trilogy is one of Allen's best known works, but as it turns out, it's not Allen's best. With a Star Wars universe, Allen can ride on a ready made fan base and characters. "Depths of Time" is an example of Allen creating a non-Star Wars universe that is complex, believable, and open-ended. The blending of social science, mystery, and hard science fiction is a good mix. The central device is time travel, but the book effectively moves us along at a real time pace to unfold a centuries old canvas. Not an easy thing to pull off, but Allen keeps the reader balanced between the backdrop of an entire universe in crisis and the fate of just one man. I believe the mark of good science fiction is when the "sci-fi" serves to support great characters, and Allen doesn't disappoint. Fans used to Allen's action writing may be surprised when the opening ship battles evolve into the personal struggles of Anton Koffield, but the shift is still compelling. Allen coaxes you into Koffield's life with the familiarity of a good space opera, but carries you with real human crises and the mysteries that grow from them. As a character, Koffield still bears some of the two-dimensional aspects plaguing most of Allen's Star Wars influenced writing, but Koffield's no stereotype. It also looks like Allen is wisely holding back more on Koffield's psyche for the sequel. No matter; what's left unexplained is just as rewarding as what the reader is allowed to uncover. No ready made marketable endings and plot twists either. It's always a pleasure to read a story not disguised as a promo for a movie script. Thank Allen's stars it looks like the beginning of a thoughtful and original space trilogy. Wormhole or no wormhole, it will be worth taking the time to see how it all turns out.
Rating: 5
Summary: Space Opera in the grand tradition
Comment: This is as good as science fiction gets, in my experience at least. BUT bear in mind that The Depths of Time is the first volume of a trilogy. The entire arc of the story encompasses *all three volumes*, a total of something like 1,300 pages. Yes, the first volume leaves large unresolved plot elements. It had to! I had all three books at hand when I started reading this first one in the series. Finished this one, read the second one, and now am half way through the third. Good all the way, and I hope well resolved in the next couple of hundred pages.
The trilogy has several lines of science (ecology, space travel, wormhole time travel, artificial intelligence, and more) and social science. Characters develop and are revealed over the course of the series. Well crafted, very entertaining, and a good balance of detail (for example on spacecraft landing procedures) and of prudent omission of details where the "science" simply has to be taken as a given.
Rating: 1
Summary: Incomplete, Unsatisfying, Poorly-written, Frustrating
Comment: I've never felt so compelled to write a review of a book in my life. I usually save books I've read so that I can pass them on. With "The Depths of Time," I was so concerned that my brother might stumble upon it on a shelf somewhere and thus waste a week (measured in eons) of his life wading through it that I tossed it in my kitchen garbage can. Then I pushed it down further, into some coffee grounds. That wasn't enough, however. I had to write a review where people would see it. Since I had somehow managed to get through the book without ever becoming conscious of the author's name, I had to fish the book back out of the garbage can, glance at the name, and rebury it. That said, here's my review...
This book was horrible. It was poorly-written, badly-paced, and boring. It leaves the reader hanging at the end, wondering (1) why did the author bother, (2) why did the reader bother, and (3) from this angle, how likely is it that the book will bounce off of the oven and land on the "down-side" of the flip-top kitchen garbage can.
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Title: The Shores of Tomorrow by ROGER MACBRIDE ALLEN ISBN: 0553583654 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Heirs of Earth by Sean Williams, Shane Dix ISBN: 0441011268 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Dark as Day by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0812580311 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 14 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Orphans of Earth by Sean Williams, Shane Dix ISBN: 0441010067 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Cold As Ice by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0812511638 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 15 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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