Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

A stunning new companion series to 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY from the world's most important SF writer and his acknowledged heir 1885, the North West Frontier. Rudyard Kipling is witness to a bizarre encounter between the British army and what appears to be an impossibly advanced piece of Russian technology. And then to a terrifying intervention by a helicopter from 2037. Before the full impact of this extraordinary event has even begun to sink in, Kipling, his friends and the helicopter crew stumble across Alexander the Great's army. Mankind's time odyssey has begun. It is a journey that will see Alexander avoid his premature death and carve out an Empire that expands from Carthage to China, beating the time-slipped army of Ghenghis Khan in a battle outside the ruins of Babylon in the process. And it will present mankind with two devastating truths. Aliens are amongst us and have been manipulating our past and our future. And that future extends only as far as 2037, for that is the date Earth will be destroyed. This is SF that spans countless centuries and carries cutting edge ideas on time travel and alien intervention. It shows two of the genre's masters at their groundbreaking best.

This is the first of the “Time Odyssey” series. There are three books as of now, but it is written to make much more. Unfortunately, Mr. Clarke died in 2008, so this series will probably stay unfinished, and that's probably for the better.

Should you invest your time in this? If you know Stephen Baxter's work and you like it, go on. If you are under the spell of Arthur C. Clarke's name, do not. This isn't Clarke's. He probably contributed at high level, but the grunt work is Baxter's, and his style overwhelmingly dominates.

If you are still undecided and don't mind a small spoiler, only read it if you enjoy historical fiction, because that is mostly what this book is..

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.