Another twist to a time travel novel.

books:


	• Time Spike Eric Flint, Marilyn Kosmatka Baen, 2008 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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Okay reading but not much here

One moment the understaffed maximum security prison is in southern Illinois. The next, it's a hundred million years in the past. The prison guards struggle to deal with a couple of thousand confused but dangerous prisoners in a world where the primary food available might be butchered dinosaur, but where a scattering of other time wanderers--including Trail of Tears Cherokees, pre-Columbian, Mound Indians, and explorer/slaver Hernando de Soto also attempt to survive.

A couple of hundred prison guards can't keep two thousand prisoners under perpetual lock-down, and food is bound to run short. But freeing the prisoners would create a killing frenzy--and would probably be equivalent to killing most of them since urban crime is no preparation for survival in a world where even flowering plants are not yet known and where fifteen ton predators will happily dine on humans. When most of the guards leave to make contact with the Cherokees and attempt to forge an alliance against de Soto, the prisoners rebel, taking over the prison and instituting a brutal purge.

Set in Eric Flint's 1632 universe, TIME SPIKE includes occasional glimpses of those left behind--scientists and conspiracy experts who realize that the government has fabricated terrorism stories about both Grantville (1632) and the prison disappearance. Eric Flint teams with new author Marilyn Kosmatka to take the story of time-traveling societies to a much more distant past.

Because TIME SPIKE is set in the land of dinosaurs, we don't get one of the primary joys of alternate history--seeing how modern people interact with the cultures of the past, changing history as they exchange values and information. Flint/Kosmatka attempt to offset this by introducing the Cherokee and Spanish victims of the time spike but for me, this expedient was only partially successful. For me, TIME SPIKE didn't really develop its characters sufficiently--except for prisoner Cook. Finally, if we were going to have a time travel story set in the world of dinosaurs, I would have liked to see a lot more dinosaurs.

Flint and Kosmatka deliver a fair amount of not-too-subtle political commentary. Although I agree with them in this case, political commentary is most valuable when it's developed in the process of the story. In TIME SPIKE, I found the political aspects a bit heavy-handed. And speaking of heavy-hands, my editing pencil kept twitching as I wanted to de-clunk some of the English. TIME SPIKE should be read as light-weight enjoyment. It doesn't pack the interest that the 1632 series does, but it'll do for light reading.

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Another great "what if" by Eric Flint

I enjoyed this action packed voyage back in time because it made adapting to the new reality much more difficult than the voyagers from Grantville had. I thought the Grantville people had it too easy, too many modern comforts were blasted back with them. Just the idea of managing and feeding thousands of convicts makes your head throb, then throw in no grasses to eat and some dinasaurs and you have lots of problems. Loved it.Some of those questions of the effect of the shift of Grantville had on those who remained behind were tied up. People speculating was interesting, too. I hope there is another in this series.

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Time Spike

Wow! This book was great from start to finish! You never knew what was about to happen. Great job!!! Also,for a first author time should be proud!!

The Sound of Opening Doors

You can tell from my other reviews that I have been a big fan of Flint's Ring of Fire series, but I thought he was running out of steam. I was wrong. With what amounts to the 14th book in the series, Flint and Kosmatka not only have produced an excellent book in the series, but one which opens many new doors to a possible expansion of the series almost without bound. Big words. How so?

Well, by the end we have a team at the highest scientific level working on the "problem" from the present. They are learning new science about time and how to manipulate it. This can open a door to possible rescue attempts from the present (which will probably be rejected by most of the folks involved who will have built their own worlds by then). It can also open a door to the future with endless possibilities therein. It can open a door to a practical FTL space drive to transport humans to the ends of the universe. It can open a door to the mixing of humanity from all ages with staggering but unpredictable results

There are probably other doors that haven't occurred to me as yet, but I think that is more than enough for one book. This series could easily eventually dwarf even the Honor Harrington series - what a joy to contemplate!

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Another twist to a time travel novel.

I have read all of Mr. Flint's novels and really enjoyed this one. I had thought that the travelers from Grantville arrived in the past with too many luxuries from the present and am pleased too see the prison guards have the added problem of how to deal with the prisoners. The reasoning of the reader is challenged to come up with their own solutions to the problems. Can't wait for the next installment.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Captain Mark Stephens was overseeing the change of shifts at the state of Illinois' maximum-security prison when the world outside was suddenly ripped. They thought it was an earthquake until they found that the Mississippi river had disappeared, along with all signs of civilization. Then the sun came up -- in the wrong direction. And a dinosaur came by and scratched its hide against the wall of the prison...

Something had thrown the prison back in time millions of years. And they were not alone. Other humans from periods centuries, even millennia apart had also been dropped into the same time. Including a band of murderous conquistadores. But the prison had its own large population of murderers. They couldn't be turned loose, but what else could be done with them? Death walked outside the walls, human savagery was planning to break loose inside, and Stephens and the other men and women of the prison's staff were trapped in the middle.

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