Lack of balance of characters.

A black lesbian military commander. Great why not. But the aggregate of characters becomes ludicrous and unbelievable. The book states 30% of US coastguard is female. In fact it’s 15%. In the book the commander, second in command, aide, chief trainer are all women and this in a profession that is male dominated for obvious reasons. The only notable male military character deserts and is the chief baddie. There is a daring commando raid - 60% women. Other aspects of the book follow the same pattern. It all gets a bit tedious.

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Screaming in Welsh

We spoke a language similar to Welsh (Brittonic) along with other languages not lithuanian. I hate experts who are not.

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A good story well told

A good story well told (not a great story excellently read) with an interesting central idea and interesting characters. People have said that it lacks the depth of greys between the good and bad and yes, I think that is fair comment. Others have said it is very feminist and I can't honestly agree personally though others obviously do and yes, the female characters are strong.

Whilst it was well read, it was sometimes hard to discern a new paragraph or section in the story though otherwise it was solidly done.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story, my first alternate history book (if you don't count 1984) and it will be a genre and author I will return to.

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Gripping

I loved this series - and the much longer one that followed it.



I listen to my audio-books whilst driving and this series had me looking forward to long car journeys. The initial plot mechanism is interesting and, apart from the initial series of coincidences necessary to get the ball rolling, the story develops well and the author generally adheres well to the rules of his universe.



Reccomended.

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Thought provoking

Interesting concept. Characters well developed. Left wanting to know more of premise & people! Well narrated.

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Island in the sea of time

If you could sum up Island in the Sea of Time in three words, what would they be?

Informative, interesting,

What did you like best about this story?

Was a good back story to the other books

Which character – as performed by Todd McLaren – was your favourite?

All of them very well characterised

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me laugh

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed listening to the book

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A really interesting idea for a book.

I am only one hour into the book, and I am really enjoying it. Hence four stars! But. The mainland at Cape Cod is so close that settlements should have been establish there. But. Only after every person going to Cape Cod was isolated for ten days to ensure that they had no diseses. By building these settlements they would have, like the early European immigrants, been able to establish productive farms. They would also be able to hunt and gather meat, vegetables and fruit, whilst establishing the cultivated crops. Oil seed crops would have enabled them to keep the diesel engines running. Timber would have allowed the steam engines to be kept going. The trawlers could have been converted to sail. etc., etc., etc.. The first thing I would have done would be to take all firearms away from their owners, and only issue them to hunters. I am another hour in, and it is obvious that the author has no knowledge of the British Isles around 1300 BCE! He keeps referring to 'English' people. The Anglo-Saxons did not invade until around 700 CE. SO! There were no English until then. 10,000 BCE - Immigration from Europe by land bridge to what is now Britain and Ireland. 6,100 BCE - The Irish Sea and the Channel form. European immigration by sea. 43 CE - Rome invades and the names 'Britain' and 'Ireland' are invented! Whale oil could be used as diesel fuel, but what is probably more important are engine lubricants. Whale oil was used in auto. transmissions, so may be ok for gearboxes, but would it stand up to the pressures in an internal combustion engine? Certainly oil powered, and lubricated, stem engines could be built and would be more efficient in both power and space, than a wood fired boiler in the Eagle. Whale oil should not be wasted in lamps as tallow candles will suffice for an agrerian society! Shame there is no qualified Mechanical Engineer on the island. Now we are down to two stars!

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lots of rape

Gang rape early on, then beastiality a bit later, followed by more rape treated casually at every battle scene.

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