Time's Eye

November 24, 2003
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.

November 15, 2003
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 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2003
Mysterious, incredibly superior alien beings assemble a new Earth out of bits and pieces of the old one, which they snatch from various eras. So a UN helicopter crew from 2037, a crew of astronauts from the same era, Genghis Khan and his Horde, Alexander the Great and his army, a British Indian outpost where Rudyard Kipling (rendered here in all his youthful complexity) is visiting, and a remnant of Babylon end up coexisting. Not at all peacefully, either, especially when one astronaut, a ruthless and foul-mouthed American woman, decides to aid and abet the Mongols in their career of world conquest, which can be halted only by the other civilized time travelers joining forces with a very well portrayed Alexander. In the end, civilization's prospects have been propped up, and one of the UN crew is off to find the aliens (her search will be, one presumes, the subject of another book). With Clarke and Baxter collaborating smoothly, this is a fine exploration of themes that Clarke has explored regularly since " Childhood's End" (1953), at least, and good news for those who enjoy both men's work. Oh, yes, this book begins a new saga, entitled A Time Odyssey--does that ring a bell?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)