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Island in the Sea of Time
Island in the Sea of Time
Island in the Sea of Time
Audiobook25 hours

Island in the Sea of Time

Written by S. M. Stirling

Narrated by Todd McLaren

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.

A startling phenomenon has occurred: The island of Nantucket has been swept into the long-ago past. With its inhabitants adrift in the year 1250 BC, there is only one question to be answered: Can they survive?
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 10, 2008
ISBN9781400176793
Island in the Sea of Time
Author

S. M. Stirling

Steven “S.M.” Stirling is a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico. His hobbies are mostly related to the craft of writing. He loves history, anthropology, and archaeology, as well as interest in the sciences. Steven has published over 40 novels, at least 5 of which are New York Times bestsellers and he has won awards including the Dragon Award for his novel, Black Chamber. Steven has been a Writers of the Future Judge since 2021.

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Reviews for Island in the Sea of Time

Rating: 3.949004955223881 out of 5 stars
4/5

402 ratings26 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    After just reading the entire 15 book Emberverse series (and previously having read the 9 “Lost Regiment” series by Forstchen and about a half dozen of the “Ring of Fire” stories by Flint) I find myself a bit exhausted with “Nantucket”. I’ll read the other two books, and enjoy them…but Stirling is doing something so strange here that he’s making me a bit uncomfortable. “Dies the Fire” requires a modification of the laws of physics that doesn’t exist in this particular ‘time’ frame (some 3,000 years in the past in this sequence). Both series involve something happening to Nantucket…but that seems to be the only commonality. And, while I can’t see that it makes any difference which CHANGE series you read first, I’m hoping someone can tell me what book(s) ties them all together. I’m looking for closure here, people.Meanwhile, just as in the “Emberverse”, Stirling allows a convenient Deus Ex Machina (in the form of a Coast Guard training sailing ship) to be caught within the ‘change’ such that, with the already technical industrial underpinnings of Nantucket itself we’re off to a roaring good start. But, of course, we need some bad guys. So, in addition to the local weirdos who can’t handle the ‘change’ and/or want/need to alter the direction of the efforts to reestablish some semblance of order—and survivability—we have some really smart people with some really megalomaniac tendencies to contend with. We’re talking all-out war. And on two continents.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the start of an excellent series. There's so much detail and thought given in, such rich history brought to life, and vivid characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I started with the Change novels and I can see the similarities in turns of phrase, even in the reader for the audio version, but I'm enjoying it all the same, even if those quirks bring me a tad out of the story.
    I like the survival and alternate history aspects of this story, and, of course, the understated, Stirling-style romance. I won't give away who, but I especially liked the ones in here!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first installment of the Nantucket Series alternate history series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Intriguing premise - the entire island of Nantucket, as it exists in this timeframe, is transported to the past. The people on Nantucket at the time have to learn to survive with what they have at hand, and learn to live off the land all over again. The details are not neglected - changes in stars, the animals on the shore and the fish in the oceans. More sailing information than I've been exposed to, and information on native peoples that were likely alive at that time make this a learning experience as well. It's like living history! I am aware that it's fictional, but seems very well researched and developed. Characters are varied and interesting, storyline moves along swiftly, keeping my attention and drawing me back for more. Finished the first one and bought the other two in the series - it's that good!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The entire island of Nantucket is somehow transported from the year 1998 all the way back to 1250 B.C. The exact reason and mechanism for this aren't really explored here; it remains a deep mystery to everyone involved. Instead, Stirling focuses on what happens next: how the islanders survive, what kinds of technology they are able to reinvent or maintain, how they reorganize their society, and what encounters they have with the people of that era. That last thing gets very messy and complicated; there are a lot of bloody conflicts in the second half of the book.This is a really intriguing premise. I have slightly mixed feelings about how Stirling handles it, though, because what he presents strikes me as a highly unrealistic best-case scenario for this situation, in terms of just how much people are able to accomplish in a very short period of time, and I think he glosses over a lot of technological and psychological difficulties. To he credit, he doesn't ignore them, but he does gloss over them. And I never could quite stop being aware of the fact that the author was manipulating everything about the situation to take the story in exactly the directions he wanted it. (E.g., they just happen to have a talented blacksmith, but most of their guns get destroyed early on. Yay, sword fights for everybody!) Of course, all authors do this, but it always works better when you don't notice it.None of that, however, kept me from being interested in how things were going for the Nantucketers and what they were accomplishing. Stirling really does put a lot of attention into all the details, and conjures up the feeling of suddenly entering a vanished, long-ago world pretty well. I found it all much more engaging than I initially expected to, even when nothing much was going on. Actually... Possibly especially when nothing much was going on, because just about halfway through the book, which is where most of the real action starts, I was beginning to get tired. Not that I'd stopped being interested, exactly, but... Well, this isn't exactly a fast-paced page-turner, and it was taking me so long to get through it that by that point I just kind of felt like I wanted to get to the conclusion so I could go on to something else.Even when I did, though, I don't know that it was a terribly satisfying conclusion. The central conflict is temporarily resolved, but the feel of the ending was very much, "Thus ends Book One! Stay tuned for the sequel!" Whether I actually will pick up the next book or not, I don't really know. I'd kind of like to return to this world and see how it fares as the years pass, but, man, 600 pages of this at a shot may just be a little too much for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is the first in Stirling's Nantucket series and is a speculative fiction piece that revolves around what would happen if the island of Nantucket and all of its inhabitants were tranported to the Bronze Age. The book is filled with many fun 'What if' scenarios. What if modern man ran into Mayan cannibals in South America? Who would win and who would be dinner? The book is a large scale Survivor game and you find yourself cheering for Team Nantucket. The narration is well done with just the perfect amount of Cape Cod accent. And the book adds just a bit of ancient history to give it some appeal to historical fiction buffs. Definitely a fun audiobook to try out!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was all set to love this as much as I loved the parallel series, the Emberverse, but I didn't.

    I'm not sure why, but this book was just not as interesting. I suspect that at least some of it was sadness to think that these people were given a chance to start over with a clean slate and the first thing they did was introduce disease to the indigenous population. And then guns. *sigh*

    I'm bailing out of this series here.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a reasonably good and entertaining alternative history story. Alternate history might not be the right tag - more like an alternate reality via time travel. There is something about Stirling's writing and manner of storytelling at times that I'm not crazy about. The story doesn't always flow well. There are scene shifts that are jarring and oftentimes conversations don't seem to work very well, especially when trying to emulate a manner of speaking. I liked the ideas in the story more than how they were told, is maybe what I want to say. Maybe we just need a better editor here too. Also, I didn't find myself attached to most of the characters. More often than not I observed, rather than being caught up in the story. I expected to like this book a lot more than I did. I'd rate this higher if I wasn't so bothered by the uneven writing.There is an "Event" that throws the island of Nantucket back in time from March 1998 to March 1250 BC. A coast guard training vessel near the island is caught with the sweep. I thought the story would have it's hands full just dealing with the people on the island and how they would survive and interact with a prehistoric North America, but the scope of the book is much larger than that. A lot of thought was given to how could the community survive and the small details were interesting at times, and other times not.There are some elements in this story that would bother sensitive readers.This book is the first in a trilogy and I am unsure if I will read the two followup novels to see how this story plays out.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The island of Nantucket is transported back to 1250 BC. Stirling does a good job making you think about how you would survive without the modern comforts of home. Not big of a problem here as Stirling populated Nantucket with people who have just the knowledge to assure survival.Some of the indigenous names are a challenge and a few of the descriptions of Bronze Age rituals are a bit long.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's March 1998. The Island of Nantucket, off the coast of New England, population 4000, has gone through something but nobody knows what it is. A student of astronomy has determined, they are not looking at the sky of March 1998. She informs the Chief of Police. The airport has had no flights come in and is unable to raise the mainland. The Chief requests an emergency flight to the mainland, on the only seaplane on the island. In flight, they spot twin tailed spouts. The Chief had never seen that many whales, the spouts and glistening backs stretched for miles. They were Right whales which had been virtually extinct in these waters since the eighteen century. By the time they overflew, a Cape Cod, empty of roads and houses and reached Boston, the Chief was almost unsurprised at what they found. There was still a bay and islands, but only roughly like the maps. Dense forest grew almost to the water’s edge, huge broadleaf trees towering hundreds of feet in the air, and birds rose in their ten of thousands from salt marsh and creek mouth. A stretch of shingle beach edged a seaside clearing where a creek ran into the sea. In it were a score or so shelters made by bending saplings into U-shapes, and then covering the sides with bark and brush, like the Stone Age versions of Quonset huts. The student of astronomy had determined correctly, the world was now 1250 BC, with the Island of Nantucket remaining in its current state. There would be no supplies of fuel, food, medicine or any other twenty century technology from the main land. They were on the own to survive the best they could from any outside threats as well as from within. This is a must read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The people on the island of Nantucket, wake up one morning to find themselves and their island transported into the past, to about 2000BC. The island and one Coast Guard sailing ship are, as far as they know, the only people from their time suddenly in the past.What do they do now? How do they survive? What sort of people will step up and take control and make the island ready for their new reality, and what people will see the situation as an opportunity to grasp power through any means necessary.The story is complex and believable, in that you can see how and why they make the decisions they do. It is also surprising in that what they find, and the enemies they face, are realistic and drawn with care and depth. There are no real monsters here, well, other than monsters men can become when they decide to carve out a kingdom rather than work together with others to make a new world where all can live in relative comfort.I also found Stirling's treatment of the idea that if you change things, will you change the future so much that you won't ever even be in it, well thought out. For the folks of Nantucket, they have little choice. They're trying to find a way to merely survive. If that changes 'history' well, they really can't afford the luxury of altering their actions in hopes of not mucking about with things. No, all they can do is put one foot in front of the other and deal with the consequences.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Island in the Sea of Time was an interesting alternate history concept, and fairly well executed, though I admit to struggling with it from about half way through to the end. Reminiscent of 1632 by Eric Flint, it has a lot more introspective tone and the characters, especially those of Marion Alston and Walker, spend a lot of time cogitating on the scenery and events around them.This aspect of the novel lost me entirely. I found myself skimming portions of the novel as a result of this characteristic. I've read novels that are introspective before, but something about this particlar novel just didn't fly with me. Some characters were fairly well developed, others I felt to be quite flat and uninteresting. Even the few that I found myself caring something about, I just didn't quite connect with. Still, I have to admit, grudgingly, that the story was a reasonably good one. I have a feeling that many folks would love this novel, as the writing and vocabulary overall cannot be faulted, and the story concept was quite well developed. I'll not likely read any of the rest of the trilogy myself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Some pure escapism, and it was well-done. The premise is that the island of Nantucket, plus a bit of the sea around, is encapsulated and sent back to the same precise location but in 1250BC. It is a pure translation of people to a new time - that is, the technology brought back still works if it has fuel and data (GPS doesn't work due to lack of satellites, for instance, but the radios are fine as long as the batteries work). Because this is a tourist destination, there is still a lot of old stuff that still can be fixed up to work in a pre-industrial revolution world. There is also a Coast Guard ship captained by a gay black woman, with a ship full of cadets, caught in the Event. She is one of the more interesting people that the book follows. It also follows an astronomer and an historian who were on the island at the time, the police chief, a pilot, and a few others. There is exploration - to the British Isles, down to the Carribean, and building up enough stores of food for the first winter. And, of course, there are the villians, both outside the group, and inside.There is a curious lack of interest in figuring out whether there was something on the island that caused this Event, but this is a novel of First Contact between modern civilization and the Bronze Age peoples around the Atlantic, not of speculative physics. Quite enjoyable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Could not put the story down. Great character development, marvelous story-line. Two thumbs up!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An interesting premise. Although I enjoyed the book, I found the nautical, sailor aspect of this to be a little redundant. I started the series because I wanted to read the series that is sort of related to this one. I have higher hopes of the next one, I am not sure i will finish this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    slow start but got better fast
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is really just another take on the old theme of 'what if a person from modern times is stranded without technology?' but with several twists, in this case, the entire island of Nantucket goes! However, this is really well done, and the characters are very interesting. The description of ancient societies is a significant part of the book also. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Here's a fun idea: Take a bunch of modern folks and send them helplessly back in time. What kind of culture clash could we get from smashing together past civilizations with a modern community, technologies, ideas, and knowledge? You could get a fabulous novel of ideas, as well as an amazing rip-roaring adventure. Unfortunately, Stirling's all-too-evident Libertarian-right politics killed any possible "novel of ideas" angle, leaving only the shell of a fun adventure. This painful preachiness plays out most obviously in characterizations. One notices right away that the hippie-lefty feminist environmentalist crowd are strawfolks. Oh how ironic that their crazy lefty ideas about the peaceful Native Americans got them eaten by cannibalistic Caribs! If only they hadn't gotten Good People killed on account of their naively wrongheaded ideas. What are all those lefties and anti-racists and shrill feminists complaining about anyhow? All good white folks are color-blind, etc., etc., so there's absolutely no need to worry about racism or sexism or heterosexism in Nantucket civilization. This is obvious, because Captain Marian Alston -- an African American lesbian Coast Guard captain -- has succeeded in the US Coast Guard and is even more successful in enlightened Nantucket civilization. Can you spell TOKEN, girls and boys? ("S-A-R-A-H P-A-L-" -- ahem.) Is anyone surprised that Captain Alston is of course a martial arts expert, doing tai chi (or whatever) in the early dawn on her deck? The gruff and kindly somewhat over-the-hill alpha male (aka "mary stu") is right about everything, except -- of course -- he is a little too trusting of the villains. But that's okay, because how else would we get to demonstrate the need to arm society, spread Western style democracy about the world, and play tough with lefties and villains alike? (And of course we ally very early on with British Isles folks.)This political simplicity harms the characterization (and the resulting plot points) but also effectively destroys the suspense. Do we, really, worry about the survival of the Nantucketers through their first hard winter? No, because we know that their Yankee pluck and ingenuity -- and their wise leadership -- will carry them through. At least, anyone smart enough to go along with the wise leadership will survive; naive and foolish environmentalists, lefties, etc., will perish, because of course that's what those crazy ideas would naturally lead to if faced with reality. The whole damn thing is a paean to how almost-perfect "our" (US, middle-class) civilization is, and how just a few libertarian tweaks would make it even more perfect. No, I'm not exaggerating. The *concept* at the core of this series had the potential to become a great series of novels of ideas. But when the ideas being put forward are so painfully simplistic and unrealistically drawn, you just can't take it seriously. But, hopefully, you didn't mean to take it seriously. Because on the good side, if you can ignore Stirling's aggravating preachiness, and the various too-convenient coincidences that make life so peachy-keen for the Nantucketers, it's a pretty fast and entertaining read. And there are lots of battles with various cool historical figures and peoples, and loving descriptions of various archaic and modern technologies. And who doesn't love Robinsonade survival / encounter stuff?So, in conclusion: Pick it up if you want to while away a few pleasant hours in escapist adventure with fun trappings, so long as you have a high tolerance for straw-feminists and other eye-rolling characterizations.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What happens when Nantucket Island is thrust 1250 years in the past. Well, the good 'ole Americans kick butt. While I really enjoyed the book, I thought the folks had just a bit of an easy time adjusting. And the ending seemed a bit rushed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked this book up at Denvention after it was recommended during one of the panels, and I'm glad I did. Unlike Eric Flint's 1632 series (which I also recommend), this one has seriously bad guys in the castaways, and that adds a lot of complexity to the mix.Now, of course, I have to read the rest of the series, as well as the companion Dies the Fire series. *sigh*
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a bit of an adolescent fantasy, and Stirling takes a lot from historical battles, but it's the *good* kind of adolescent fantasy. Great, varied characters, including lesbians, which are rarely done in science fiction and even more rarely done well. Tip of the cap to Mr. Stirling. I love this series, and I'm even not embarrassed to say so.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What I like the best about this book is all the practical everyday adjustments the inhabitants of Nantucket have to make in adjusting to life suddenly in 1250bc. And then their interaction with indigenous people and the ramifications of each encounter.At times, I think Stirling got way to wordy and the novel could have been condensed by at least a hundred pages.I still love the concept of this novel and his execution.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pretty well thought-out. I picked this up after reading the Ember Universe trilogy (Dies the Fire, et seq.), and it is the flip side of the Change (or the Event, depending on the series). I haven't read the next two yet, but they're sitting on my nightstand.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book, as i have loved every Stirling book I've ever read. I heard that there is a sequal to this book, does anyone know the name of it? Please comment on my profile page. I will appreciate any help! Thanks
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The inhabitants of Nantucket find themselves drawn through time to the bronze age. How different people react is what this book is about, interesting, but the ending was a bit abrupt in my mind opening a large door for sequels.