Time Odyssey trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter – Time's Eye, Sunstorm, and Firstborn.
Time's Eye is a fascinating concept. In an alternative history style of story, the world is reeling in the wake of a catastrophic event which various times and places of human history are spliced throughout the Earth and left to fend in this re-created world. This book is science based, but focuses on the interactions of characters between historical time periods and how they pick up the pieces of their world and build a new civilization.
Sunstorm takes a somewhat different direction, focusing on one character returning to a futuristic earth shortly before the catastophe. Heavy on hard science, humans here work together to create new technology to save their world.
Firstborn continues the series in the vein of hard science, but it introduces some otherwise interesting concepts and characters without conclusions to their contributions. The end of the book was very anticlimatic and felt hopeless, and left too many loose ends. The story didn’t have a satisfactory finale, it just ended. I do not know if it was intended this way or if this was because Arthur C Clarke passed away, but I am disappointed Stephen Baxter did not continue the stories.
Overall, I enjoyed the Time Odyssey. The whole series feels like a tribute to Clarke’s earlier works as well as some other classic sci fi, yet it was written for a modern audience. Clarke has a way of portraying humanity’s potential and what could be our future. This is nearly a how-to guide to accomplishing great technological feats and moving out of “Earth’s cradle” and to the stars. A world is shown where humans have built space elevators, sentient and benevolent AI, terraformed Mars, sent out generational ships, and operate self-sufficient space stations.
Personally, I have trouble sharing the optimism of people being willing and able to work together to accomplish these things. But it is a wonderful vision.
Time's Eye is a fascinating concept. In an alternative history style of story, the world is reeling in the wake of a catastrophic event which various times and places of human history are spliced throughout the Earth and left to fend in this re-created world. This book is science based, but focuses on the interactions of characters between historical time periods and how they pick up the pieces of their world and build a new civilization.
Sunstorm takes a somewhat different direction, focusing on one character returning to a futuristic earth shortly before the catastophe. Heavy on hard science, humans here work together to create new technology to save their world.
Firstborn continues the series in the vein of hard science, but it introduces some otherwise interesting concepts and characters without conclusions to their contributions. The end of the book was very anticlimatic and felt hopeless, and left too many loose ends. The story didn’t have a satisfactory finale, it just ended. I do not know if it was intended this way or if this was because Arthur C Clarke passed away, but I am disappointed Stephen Baxter did not continue the stories.
Overall, I enjoyed the Time Odyssey. The whole series feels like a tribute to Clarke’s earlier works as well as some other classic sci fi, yet it was written for a modern audience. Clarke has a way of portraying humanity’s potential and what could be our future. This is nearly a how-to guide to accomplishing great technological feats and moving out of “Earth’s cradle” and to the stars. A world is shown where humans have built space elevators, sentient and benevolent AI, terraformed Mars, sent out generational ships, and operate self-sufficient space stations.
Personally, I have trouble sharing the optimism of people being willing and able to work together to accomplish these things. But it is a wonderful vision.
