Island in the Sea of Time

The Nantucket trilogy as a whole is among my favourite books. Although it's flawed in some ways, I've decided to uprate it to five stars because I'm fond of it and can't stop rereading it. It's epic in scope and comes with a large cast of varied and mostly likeable characters.It's big. The whole trilogy is almost 1700 pages in paperback: about 40 or 50% more than [b:The Lord of the Rings 33 The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566425108l/33.SX50.jpg 3462456] with appendices (depending on which edition you look at).In that space, it tells the story of how seven thousand modern Americans are unexpectedly flung back to 1250 BC; organize themselves to survive, make alliances, and gradually become a world power. There are heroes, heroines, villains, love stories, sea stories, battles, journeys, and struggles against nature. There's action in America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with many different societies and cultures.Although the pace isn't slow, the story is told in detail, and Stirling habitually gives full scenic descriptions wherever he goes, so you can really feel yourself there.The amount of detail provided in this series is staggering. All the different human cultures, the way they work, their languages and names; all the many problems of different kinds encountered by the characters and the solutions they find to them; and of course the scenic descriptions. Stirling put a lot of research into this. Clearly he had to use his imagination (i.e. he made it up) in areas where research gives no answers, but he did it plausibly enough that it's not obvious where research gives way to imagination.He gives everyone a fair crack of the whip. There are plenty of strong female characters here, and the Americans are not shown as inherently superior to the ancient peoples they meet, some of whom are highly intelligent and able.The Americans are mostly white, because they're the people of Nantucket. But there are a few African-American and Asian-American characters, plus Jewish-Americans, Hispanic Americans, a Lithuanian-American, and a Latvian-American.For me, a good book should contain engaging characters and dramatic scenes, and there are plenty of those here.In his other books, Stirling often writes about monarchy and aristocracy, and habitually gives his leading characters good combat skills; so it seems a welcome change that Nantucket remains a democracy throughout the story, and that some of the leading characters lack combat skills and do their best to stay out of combat (like normal people!).There's much good about this series. Now I'll get on to the not-so-good points.1. Stirling likes baddies who are thoroughly bad, rotten to the core. I don't. So there are two or three baddies in this story that strike me as caricatures, over the top. Sigh. I just have to put up with them. Whereas Isketerol of Tartessos is a basically decent and intelligent guy who's on the wrong side because of his background, situation, and motivations: that's the kind of opponent I like to see in a book.2. The length of the series is increased by a number of subplots and tales that could be cut without making any difference to the overall plot. Whether you enjoy these digressions is a matter of personal taste. I think it's rather inelegant to include unnecessary material, but sometimes I enjoy reading it, and if I don't I can skip it (while rereading). If you're reading for the first time, you may not realize at the time that you're reading a digression.3. Stirling doesn't like writing about mediocrities. In this series, almost anyone who has a job is really good at it. You could say this is poetic licence, and makes the story more enjoyable, but it's clearly not realistic. If Nantucket were really flung back to 1250 BC, its people would blunder and squabble amongst themselves, and would be lucky to survive. They wouldn't find any trustworthy or highly cooperative allies; the only thing that might save them is that their enemies would also be of limited competence.So far I've been talking about the trilogy as a whole. This first book covers the first two years of the story: years 1 and 2 AE (After the Event). The Nantucketers aren't computer scientists: they start counting from one, not from zero.Main events: Nantucket and the Eagle are flung back from 1998 AD to 1250 BC (Chapter 1), the people get a leader and a basic political system, and start making arrangements to feed themselves (Chapters 2, 3). They start trading with England and meet Isketerol of Tartessos there (Chapters 4-11). William Walker mutinies (with Isketerol) and takes the Yare to England, while the Lisketters kidnap Martha and take the Bentley to Mexico (Chapter 12). The Eagle pursues the Bentley, and finds that most of its crew have been killed by the Olmecs, but manages to rescue Martha (Chapters 13-15). The Eagle returns to England, makes alliance with the Earth Folk, and starts fighting the Sun People and Walker (Chapters 17-22). Big battle (Chapter 23). Peacemaking (Chapter 24).This first volume ends rather cleanly with the first phase of operations complete but plenty of room for further developments. The subsequent volumes see the action spreading out to a much wider geographical area, while Nantucket and its allies and enemies all grow in capabilities. The characters introduced in the first volume are maintained, while many new ones are introduced.Here's something to talk about after you've read the book: Alston's decision in Chapter 13 to go after the Bentley rather than the Yare is a bad mistake. By doing that, she saves Martha, but she needs improbable luck to do it, and it's the only benefit. The drawback is that she's left Walker and Isketerol free to make mayhem for the rest of the trilogy. In her defence, the amount of trouble Walker and Isketerol manage to cause is seriously implausible, and she couldn't really be expected to anticipate it.If she'd gone after the Yare, she could probably have killed Walker and Isketerol before they got organized, leaving Nantucket an unchallenged technological superpower in the ancient world. It would have no major wars, just some little ones against primitive opposition, and could use the Albans for manpower while expanding unhurriedly into the Americas. It could largely ignore mainland Europe and the Middle East: not worth the trouble of hassling with those people (so Kashtiliash would meet his original fate as in our history).Two problems. First, explaining to Jared Cofflin that his wife would have to be written off. Second, there wouldn't be enough story to make a trilogy. One book would probably suffice.And here's what seems to be a little defect in the plot: Alston shouldn't really survive the battle in Chapter 23. Fairly early in the battle, Walker fires a cannon at her but misses. Why didn't he use the much more accurate Garand rifle that he had with him? He surely had time to take multiple shots if needed. This seems inexplicable, and Stirling provides no explanation. So I suppose either he didn't think of it, or he hoped readers wouldn't notice it.