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A review by jamespatrickjoyce
The Cleopatra Crisis by Simon Hawke
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.