Scan barcode
markk's review
3.0
On the night before crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar summons an oracle to discover what the future holds for him. To the astonishment of his aide, Lucius Septimus — the cover identity of Jonathan Travers, a time-traveling observer from the 27th century — the oracle not only warns Caesar of his assassination but names the men involved. Fearing that he has stumbled across an attempt by agents of an alternate timeline to create a temporal disruption, Travers contacts his superiors in the future. Soon the crack Time Commandos of the First Division — Lucas Priest, Finn Delaney, and Andre Cross — are sent back to ensure that events proceed as needed. But with a rogue colleague, a temporal criminal, and a group of time terrorists involved, the situation threatens to spiral out of control — taking all of history with it.
The penultimate volume of Simon Hawke’s Timewars series contains nearly every element familiar to readers of the earlier books in it. Once again the Time Commandos go charging into the past, where they socialize with the great figures of the era while resolving whatever emergency required addressing. Unlike nearly all of the previous volumes, there are no characters inserted from famous works of literature, just the major personalities of Caesar’s time. Yet while an entertaining enough read, the pacing is marred by Hawke's all-too-frequent resort to information dumps throughout the narrative. Though the amount of Hawke’s background research is impressive (even if none of it alerted him to the fact that the title of imperator in the Republican era didn't make Caesar an emperor), here it's employed far too often to pad out a thin story. Perhaps this reflects a certain boredom on Hawke's part with the series, which, if true, was unfortunate given how many rich possibilities remained untapped by the end of it.
The penultimate volume of Simon Hawke’s Timewars series contains nearly every element familiar to readers of the earlier books in it. Once again the Time Commandos go charging into the past, where they socialize with the great figures of the era while resolving whatever emergency required addressing. Unlike nearly all of the previous volumes, there are no characters inserted from famous works of literature, just the major personalities of Caesar’s time. Yet while an entertaining enough read, the pacing is marred by Hawke's all-too-frequent resort to information dumps throughout the narrative. Though the amount of Hawke’s background research is impressive (even if none of it alerted him to the fact that the title of imperator in the Republican era didn't make Caesar an emperor), here it's employed far too often to pad out a thin story. Perhaps this reflects a certain boredom on Hawke's part with the series, which, if true, was unfortunate given how many rich possibilities remained untapped by the end of it.
jamespatrickjoyce's review
3.0
I had never read this "episode" in the Time Wars series, previously. I had read all of the others, when they originally came out, but this and the next had never appeared in my local bookstores, at the time and then the series just vanished, along with the publishing industry's entire midlist of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery series. Now I have one more to go and the author is at work on a long-delayed new book in the series, to be self-published. Yay!
The impetus of this adventure is an oracle meeting Gaius Julius Caesar, just prior to Caesar crossing the Rubicon and appointing himself emperor. As in the histories, this oracle warns Caesar about the Ides of March, but unlike the histories, his warning is far too specific, including the names of his would-be assassins. One of his aides being an imbedded member of the Temporal Army Observer Corps, word gets back to our heroes and the mission is, essentially, to ensure that Caesar actually dies as history records he did. (the plot of the series revolves around avoiding intentional or accidental changes to history that could cause a timestream split).
Mystery, adventure, buckling of swashes, thrills and combat! Fun, fun, fun!
If you weren't reading a book, you'd end up needing a scorecard to keep all the sides clear. Not counting the contemporary Romans and Egyptians, you have the Temporal Intelligence Agency (the good guys), the Strategic Operations Group (the bad guys) from an alternate timeline which wants to damage "our" timeline, as well as the Underground (basically a time-traveling version of the seedy side of town), and the Network (the equivalent of a temporal mafia). Yes, over the course of the series things get complicated. And that's not even counting the mysterious and nigh-superhuman Dr. Darkness (the man who is faster than light-- due to a temporal experiment that has effectively made him able to teleport through time, though at the eventual cost of his life) who's motives are completely unknown, beyond what he chooses to share.
As with the others, if you liked any of the Timewars books, you'll like this one. Especially if you have any interest in the period or the historical figures. Hawke does his research (I have to ask him about how much he had to do) and it feels like the period characters and details are (as usual) far greater than one would expect, from an "adventure story". Not to mention the head-twisting discussions about what they refer to as "Zen Physics", as it relates to everything they've learned about time travel. An interesting spin on the grandfather paradox, included.
The impetus of this adventure is an oracle meeting Gaius Julius Caesar, just prior to Caesar crossing the Rubicon and appointing himself emperor. As in the histories, this oracle warns Caesar about the Ides of March, but unlike the histories, his warning is far too specific, including the names of his would-be assassins. One of his aides being an imbedded member of the Temporal Army Observer Corps, word gets back to our heroes and the mission is, essentially, to ensure that Caesar actually dies as history records he did. (the plot of the series revolves around avoiding intentional or accidental changes to history that could cause a timestream split).
Mystery, adventure, buckling of swashes, thrills and combat! Fun, fun, fun!
If you weren't reading a book, you'd end up needing a scorecard to keep all the sides clear. Not counting the contemporary Romans and Egyptians, you have the Temporal Intelligence Agency (the good guys), the Strategic Operations Group (the bad guys) from an alternate timeline which wants to damage "our" timeline, as well as the Underground (basically a time-traveling version of the seedy side of town), and the Network (the equivalent of a temporal mafia). Yes, over the course of the series things get complicated. And that's not even counting the mysterious and nigh-superhuman Dr. Darkness (the man who is faster than light-- due to a temporal experiment that has effectively made him able to teleport through time, though at the eventual cost of his life) who's motives are completely unknown, beyond what he chooses to share.
As with the others, if you liked any of the Timewars books, you'll like this one. Especially if you have any interest in the period or the historical figures. Hawke does his research (I have to ask him about how much he had to do) and it feels like the period characters and details are (as usual) far greater than one would expect, from an "adventure story". Not to mention the head-twisting discussions about what they refer to as "Zen Physics", as it relates to everything they've learned about time travel. An interesting spin on the grandfather paradox, included.
More...