Time's Eye FROM THE PUBLISHER
For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind - until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline. Instead, the world becomes a patchwork of eras, from prehistory to 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants.
Scattered across the planet are floating silver orbs impervious to all weapons and impossible to communicate with. Are these technologically advanced devices responsible for creating and sustaining the rifts in time? Are they cameras through which inscrutable alien eyes are watching? Or are they something stranger and more terrifying still?
The answer may lie in the ancient city of Babylon, where two groups of refugees from 2037 - three cosmonauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station, and three United Nations peacekeepers on a mission in Afghanistan - have detected radio signals: the only such signals on the planet, apart from their own. The peacekeepers find allies in nineteenth-century British troops and in the armies of Alexander the Great. The cosmonauts, crash-landed in the steppes of Asia, join forces with the Mongol horde led by Genghis Khan. The two sides set out for Babylon, each determined to win the race for knowledge... and the power that lies within.
Yet the real power is beyond human control, perhaps even human understanding. As two great armies face off before the gates of Babylon, it watches, waiting.
FROM THE CRITICS
The New York Times
… the adventure is rousing, and I can't imagine anyone finishing this book and not wondering what comes next.
— Gerald Jonas
Publishers Weekly
Clarke, with Baxter (Coalescent), probably the most talented of the former's several collaborators, have cooked up an exciting tale full of high-tech physics, military tactics and larger-than-life characters in the first of two novels related to the bestselling senior author's Space Odyssey series. In an awesome and unexplained catastrophe, the earth has been literally diced and put back together again. Each of the segments of terrain (and you can actually see the dividing lines between them) comes from a different era, some of them millions of years apart. As the novel opens, a 19th-century British army company, stationed on the Afghan-Pakistani border, captures an Australopithecine mother and child, just as a team of 21st-century U.N. peacekeepers crash their helicopter nearby. Later they join forces with Alexander the Great. Simultaneously, a Soyuz descent vehicle, having just left the International Space Station, crash-lands in the middle of Genghis Khan's army. Eventually, the armies of Alexander and the Khan converge on Babylon, the last remaining large city in Eurasia and a titanic battle seems imminent. Fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey will have fun with the many references to that earlier novel. Although not flawless, this is probably the best book to appear with Clarke's name on it in a decade. (Jan. 13) Forecast: Each copy of the book will include a CD-ROM "featuring a conversation with Clarke and Baxter, a complete novel by Baxter, and more," according to the publisher. This, plus a radio satellite tour with Clarke and print advertising in major markets, should ensure at least a run up genre bestseller lists. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
VOYA - Amy Sisson
The opening chapters of this book describe different groups of humans as they experience the "Discontinuity," an unexplained fracturing that leaves different periods sewn together in a temporal patchwork quilt. Several United Nations peacekeepers from 2037 fall in with a colonial British military regiment from 1885, and subsequently with the armies led by Alexander the Great, while a trio of Soviet cosmonauts-also from 2037-encounter Genghis Khan's fearsome Mongolian warriors. It is immediately clear that these forces will be pitted against one another, but the wait can be tedious. The historical detail is interesting, however, and the authors ultimately succeed in making the reader care about what will happen to these characters. An authors' note in this novel states that it is an "orthoquel" to Clarke's Space Odyssey books, taking similar premises in a different direction. Here, Clarke and Baxter explore two very familiar Clarke themes: inscrutable alien artifacts and alien intervention in pre-human intelligence. Some young adult readers, particularly those interested in science or history, might yet be intrigued by these ideas, just as this reviewer was when first encountering them in Clarke's earlier work. Librarians should be aware that rape and other brutalities are mentioned rather casually, although the "modern" characters are suitably horrified by the barbaric behavior they witness. Overall only the more sophisticated young adult readers likely will enjoy the thought experiment played out in this book by clashing various historical periods on the same earth. VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P S A/YA (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; SeniorHigh, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults). 2004, Del Rey, 337p., Ages 15 to Adult.
Library Journal
A large, round artifact makes its way through space to Earth and transports an Australopithecan female and her child far into the future. In addition, men and women from the present find themselves suddenly transported into the past. SF Grandmaster Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Baxter (the "Manifold" series; Evolution) have collaborated on a time-traveling companion series to the various "Space Odyssey" novels, this one concerned with the dimensions of time and space. Baxter's panoramic visions and Clark's lucid and precise storytelling combine to form a series opener that belongs in all sf collections. Highly recommended. [The finished book will include a bonus bound-in CD-ROM, featuring a conversation between the two authors, the complete text of Baxter's Manifold: Time, and more.-Ed.] Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Second collaborative effort (The Light of Other Days, 2000) from these two individually famous authors, and first of a two-book series exploring the manipulation of time. In 2037, planet Earth is split into thousands of independent segments, from core to space, and then reassembled-but now each segment is from a different epoch! The oldest captures mother-and-daughter Australopithecines; others feature Neanderthals, Babylon, 1885 India, modern Chicago, and ancient Greeks. The newly stitched-together planet is wildly unstable, with volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, and dramatic climatic variations; in astronomical terms, it resides in the 13th century. Everywhere, mirrored spheres hover nearby, apparently watching. Three UN observers from 2037-Britisher Bisesa Dutt, American Casey Othic, and Afghan Abdikadir Omar-join forces with the survivors from 1885: Rudyard Kipling (yes, him), reporter Josh White of the Boston Globe, and British and Indian soldiers in the old fort of Jamrud on the northwest frontier; they pick up radio signals emanating from Babylon and decide to head there. Along the way they meet up with empire-builder Alexander the Great and his army, and join forces. Meanwhile, when a Soyuz capsule lands in Asia, its crew is promptly captured by Genghis Khan and his cruel, barbaric Mongol hordes; they also head for Babylon. Clearly, the spheres, or Eyes, have used their godlike powers to arrange the forthcoming battle, but to what ends? Are they merely voyeurs? Bisesa, who has a curious rapport with the Eyes, intends to find out. Curiously sloppy, with biographical contradictions and a rationale that's inconsistently applied: despite the many echoes of 2001, more spectacle thansubstance.
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