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welkinvault's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Interesting premise. But has all the tropes especially concerning racial backgrounds. Found the sexual politics disturbing. Only finished it as I was taking a number of plane journeys and it kept the interest going.
jonathanpalfrey's review against another edition
4.0
This final volume of the trilogy tells the story of only one year, from 10 to 11 AE (After the Event), but it’s a crowded and bloody year of full-scale war in various parts of Europe and the Middle East. In fact, there’s too much war for my taste, although there’s room in this long book for much else to happen between battles, including irrelevant digressions.
If you’ve read the second volume, you won’t be surprised by the war in Tartessos or the siege of Troy, but there are some surprises in store.
The Battle of O’Rourke’s Ford is a long digression, completely irrelevant to the overall plot, which I think should have been omitted; we have more than enough battles already. The California expedition, which goes on in the background for most of volumes two and three, is an even longer irrelevant digression, although it adds variety and makes use of the American continent.
I remember thinking when I first read this book that it was the best of the three, which is odd; because, after rereading, it now seems somewhat less good overall than the others. I enjoy the interaction between Ian Arnstein and Odikweos (known to us as Odysseus); I enjoy most of the scenes with King Isketerol; I quite like some of the interludes between battles. The land war in Tartessos is OK; but the naval battle and the later land battles are rather a grim slog, and it’s not really much fun to read about people slaughtering each other.
However, in the end everything works itself out and a fairly satisfactory ending is achieved.
Main events:
There are a couple of implausible developments towards the end, though they’re not really important.
I comment in passing that Nantucket seems to have an implausibly large stock of useful 20th century gadgets. They have enough binoculars to pass them out as gifts to selected locals; but how many binoculars would there have been on Nantucket at the Event? What proportion of people own binoculars? Likewise, they have enough radio transmitters/receivers to put them on the fragile and vulnerable ultralites; I suppose a fair proportion of people own radio receivers of some kind, but how many own anything capable of transmission?
Stirling left open the possibility of continuing this series into a fourth volume, and there remains some small possibility that this will happen; he has written at least one short story set in the same world, with one of the same characters.
If you’ve read the second volume, you won’t be surprised by the war in Tartessos or the siege of Troy, but there are some surprises in store.
The Battle of O’Rourke’s Ford is a long digression, completely irrelevant to the overall plot, which I think should have been omitted; we have more than enough battles already. The California expedition, which goes on in the background for most of volumes two and three, is an even longer irrelevant digression, although it adds variety and makes use of the American continent.
I remember thinking when I first read this book that it was the best of the three, which is odd; because, after rereading, it now seems somewhat less good overall than the others. I enjoy the interaction between Ian Arnstein and Odikweos (known to us as Odysseus); I enjoy most of the scenes with King Isketerol; I quite like some of the interludes between battles. The land war in Tartessos is OK; but the naval battle and the later land battles are rather a grim slog, and it’s not really much fun to read about people slaughtering each other.
However, in the end everything works itself out and a fairly satisfactory ending is achieved.
Main events:
Spoiler
the Battle of O’Rourke’s Ford (Chapters 3-13), Siege of Troy and capture of Ian Arnstein (Chapters 10-11), storm at sea (Chapter 10), naval battle of Tartessos (Chapters 18-19), loss of the Emancipator (Chapter 22), land war in Tartessos (Chapters 23-28), Raupasha wounded (Chapter 25), liberation of Sicily (Chapter 29), Battle of Armageddon (Chapters 30-31), death of William Walker (Chapter 30), death of Helmut Mittler (Chapter 31), conference in Nantucket and migration of Althea Walker (Chapter 32).There are a couple of implausible developments towards the end, though they’re not really important.
Spoiler
Firstly, it was uncharacteristically foolish of the Nantucketers to use their valuable and vulnerable airship (using irreplaceable future technology) for dangerous bombing missions that would have been a mere nuisance to the enemy. Secondly, I don’t believe Althea Walker could have persuaded enough people to join her 3000-mile trek eastwards. They had homes, investments, and a good life; they weren’t under threat; why throw it all away to become homeless wanderers? If she wanted to retain her position and her life, she needed to earn their loyalty and not to put it to such a heavy test right at the outset.I comment in passing that Nantucket seems to have an implausibly large stock of useful 20th century gadgets. They have enough binoculars to pass them out as gifts to selected locals; but how many binoculars would there have been on Nantucket at the Event? What proportion of people own binoculars? Likewise, they have enough radio transmitters/receivers to put them on the fragile and vulnerable ultralites; I suppose a fair proportion of people own radio receivers of some kind, but how many own anything capable of transmission?
Stirling left open the possibility of continuing this series into a fourth volume, and there remains some small possibility that this will happen; he has written at least one short story set in the same world, with one of the same characters.
hank's review
4.0
After the third large-ish book this was kind of like an old friend. The story was thought provoking as I went about my day(s), I kept thinking, "could I make that from scratch if I had to?" Usually my answer was no way. The shear amount of research and knowledge Stirling had to accumulate to write this book is impressive. From metalurgy to sailing to farming to antique weapons. Unfortunately he probably did a bit too much research, I enjoyed a huge amount of the details but there is a tipping point...do I really want to hear about every possible type of sail even if he manufactures situations where they are important? Do I really need to know what hard tack is made out of...3 times?
Regardless of the tedium at times this was an awe inspiring book in my head. I think I read the part of seeing millions of buffalo several times. I frequently looked up where all of the individual nations were and I lost myself in a time with primitive technology. The characters came to life for me and I revelled in every success and lamented every loss. A bit too much war but it was a decent engine for the story.
It left me wanting more, which is always a good thing. The length and the just barely too many details docked it a star for me.
Regardless of the tedium at times this was an awe inspiring book in my head. I think I read the part of seeing millions of buffalo several times. I frequently looked up where all of the individual nations were and I lost myself in a time with primitive technology. The characters came to life for me and I revelled in every success and lamented every loss. A bit too much war but it was a decent engine for the story.
It left me wanting more, which is always a good thing. The length and the just barely too many details docked it a star for me.
newfylady's review
I really wanted to like this book but after about 200 pages I had to give up. I just couldn't read more than a page at a time.
houseofatreides's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
The concluding novel in the islander book series. It is a long epic novel spanning multiple stories over the course of 2-3 years. It is fun to see the different character on their respective journeys. However the Nobel often got bogged down in the quagmire of too many names and places and points of views. Overall though it’s a engaging story. The author does a good job of wrapping up arcs. The death of most of Walkers clan by Mittler poisoning them was fitting. As sudden and brutal-I was hoping for Marian and him to have a rematch-no other ending would suffice for the wickedness he caused. To reiterate the novel was quite interesting to read but often got bogged down with all the characters. The sex scenes/descriptions where to vulgar for my personal tastes. Further many of the characters could have been dropped or leased as their stories no longer took hold on the greater overarching story of the war. This prolonged the novel in many ways. Especially with the Doctors in Bablyon. Further, Pete Giernas mission in what-is-to-be-California as exciting as it was, was a aside to the main story and in some ways did take away from the main conflict in Hattusa or wither the sea conflict with Tartessos. Further the Egyptians joining the war, although implied in book two, was so late explored in the book it felt very out of left field. Those chapters in small ways broke the Emerson of the story. Especially considering neither fully stayed with one narrator in Egypt. The narration for it was interesting but it did make it harder to follow. overall a good novel, and worth reading to finish the series. It is a slog at parts though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Child abuse, Genocide, and War
lvl52_grant's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A cap to the Nantucket trilogy, the thing I kept thinking while reading this book was "how much does this man know??" The details of geography, history, metallurgy, medicine, city planning/sanitation, sailing, military engineering/ ceremony/etiquette/theory, is astounding and, at times, overwhelming. I found myself a few times skimming over detailed sections that pointed out every single detail of things that didn't necessarily move the plot forwards (I kid you not, it took three pages to lower a boat for a navy officer to ago ashore). However, using the breadth of his knowledge, Stirling used it to build an incredibly interesting world that, by this book, had time to shift and solidify into something familiar to our history but intriguingly different. The characters settled into some stereotypes, but were ultimately loveable and enjoyable. As someone interested in historical narratives, this series had me hooked, and so incredibly curious about how the world develops after the books end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, and Colonisation
jdhacker's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Same issues as the previous book. The prequels really suffer from some anti-gay (specifically, anti-lesbian) and some racist stuff that makes me uncomfortable that is much less prevalent than in the main series, as well as poorly imagined and bizarrely knowledgeable/talented villains. Especially as they aren't crucial to the overall series, I'd say skip the prequel trilogy entirely.
lvh's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
jaxboiler's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this installment of the series. I thought it moved a little better than the 2nd one did. A couple of the plot lines seemed kind of useless but that is just my opinion.