Island in the Sea of Time / S.M. Stirling

 

Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is not a book that I would have sought out on my own, it was part of a list which I decided to read my way through. It is a twist on time travel, where usually one or a few people travel to the past, sometimes as a planned operation. In this instance, the entire island of Nantucket is transported by an unexplained Event to 3000 years in the past. This makes it kind of a cross between a time travel book and a post-apocalyptic tale. The community must figure out how to grow their own food, make their own cloth, and all the other things that are necessary for survival.

The population of the island gives the author some leeway, providing specialists in skills like blacksmithing, horse training, hunting, sailing, etc. It also gives a variety of personalities, from academics to politicians to criminals. A little of everything, with the tensions and disagreements that are normal among any group of humans who are trying to coexist.

Fortunately, a Coast Guard sailing ship has been caught within the translocation field too, and it is sent to the pre-British Isles to acquire seed grain and some foundational livestock. A former historian accompanies them as a guide and potential translator. In fact there is a lot of sailing all over—to ancient Mexico, to the Caribbean, as well as back & forth to Europe. I have no way to know if this a realistic prospect.

All the while I was reading this, I was reminded of Reality Dysfunction : Emergence and Expansion, which I read earlier this year. Thankfully, this book was superior to that one and shorter too! It was the villains of the two pieces that resembled each other. In the Reality Dysfunction, it was a young man leading a Satanic cult; in this one, it's a young man with delusions of grandeur, a touch of sadism, and a wife who has a taste for torture. It's like the bad guys have to be over-the-top evil, the garden variety just isn’t horrible enough. There's a strong Paradise Lost vibe, better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Book number 385 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.


View all my reviews