Time's Eye

This is an intriguing story blending together science fiction concepts like time travel with actual history. It has a ring of alternate history to it, but it's certainly more than that.The story unfolds much the same as [b:2001: A Space Odyssey 70535 2001 A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1) Arthur C. Clarke http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1348775483s/70535.jpg 208362] with a look at some apes, Seeker and Grasper. This book has been described as A Space Odyssey, but instead a Time Odyssey, which the series name obviously suggests. So the parallels to that great series are several in number and fun to discover.This is the story of several groups of humans from a different time in history all meeting up in one glorious climax, real time unknown. Readers are treated to meeting Kolya, Sable, and Musa up in a space station; Josh and Ruddy in late 1800s India; Bisesa, Casey, and Abdi in a crashing UN helicopter somewhere near India; Alexander the Great; and even Genghis Khan. Surrounding this unlikely (impossible even) cast of characters are mysterious metal orbs that are unmovable and unpenetrable. I pictured them set up in a concise grid all over the world bigger than a human head but smaller than an exercise ball.Arthur C Clarke is one of my favorite authors. Of Stephen Baxter's work, I have only read one novel, and it was so long ago that I remember almost nothing about it. I have no doubt these 2 authors had a good time with this concept. If you like science fiction, then you probably like history too (at least, in my experience), and a time travel novel is a great device that brings these 2 concepts together: real history and science fiction.The characters are unfortunately a little flat. The evil characters are evil, and the good characters are good, sort of like a James Cameron movie. We aren't given much background on anyone, and at the same time, none really stand out. I felt also that the 2 female characters were not well developed at all. One is a good nurturing mother figure, and the other is has .... shall we say loose morals. The male characters aren't much better.But how much fun to have Genghis Khan's nomads and Alexander the Great's conquerors meet together in Babylon! I definitely enjoyed the historical aspects of this novel, and that balances out the lack of characterization for me.A good 3 star book, and I will be reading the next in the series.