| What a great idea for a story! Nantucket Island is transported back in time to 1250 BC. The 5,000 residents of the island wake up to discover that the infrastructure that connected them to the world is gone. No more food or fuel shipments. No more electrical grid.
The focus of the book moves from survival (too many mouths to feed, too little farmland) to exploration and trade, to rapid industrial development, to reigning in a renegade with ambitions of empire building. Stirling answers the question of what one does to build a modern society if one has a fair amount of knowledge but a scarcity of equipment and infrastructure. He has obviously given it a lot of thought and his solutions are convincing. If I have any reservation here, it is that Stirling goes into a lot of detail about how to smelt iron and build a ship and a variety of other technical considerations. He gives more than I want and I found myself skimming some of these passages. The characterizations are generally very good. The good guys are well fleshed out. They have their foibles and blindspots but they learn from believable (within the context of the novel) experiences. Captain Alston strains suspension of disbelief a bit. I have no trouble accepting an accomplished black lesbian Coast Guard captain. However, her physical prowess and skill with the sword evoke comparisons to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The bad guys tend toward the two-dimensional. Walker is an Iago with no redeeming characteristics and Hong is just plain twisted. I would prefer to see a bit more character development here. Perhaps in the two sequels. Overall, a thoughtful and entertaining read. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book - very upbeat FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes Time Travel: - largely backwards/past Explore: Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Time Travel story? Yes Descript. of chases or violence - 30 % planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20 % Story largely takes place in - Really long ago Main Character Identity: - Female Profession/status: Age: - 40's-50's Main Adversary Identity: - Male Profession/status: Eccentric: Yes How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Setting Terrain Earth setting: - general past Takes place on Earth? Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - very explicit references to deaths and torture scientific jargon? (SF only) - the book is simply packed with technical jargon Sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - descript of touching personal anatomy - impregnation/reproduction - lesbians! - description of breasts - descript. of non-breast female anat. - rape/molest (yeech!) How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog |
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