1995;
530 pages. New Author? : No. Genre : Time-Travel; “Hard” Science Fiction; Speculative
Science Fiction; Sequels. Laurels : A
slew of them. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.
It was going to be a simple thing,
really. Easy-peasy.
Our hero/narrator had a successful maiden voyage into the far future –
to 807,201 AD to be precise, and returned home chastened, but safe and
sound. H.G. Wells found his manuscript
detailing the journey, and published it to enormous acclaim back in 1895,
calling it The Time Machine.
But one regret remains, one loose thread, one piece of unfinished
business. Weena, the lovely Eloi girl
that our hero became so enamored with, had to be left behind, captured by the
evil Morlocks and sure to be their next meal.
Something our hero was powerless to stop, since he was fleeing for his
life.
Yet now, back in his own time, he’s reflected on this, and has come up
with a remarkably simple solution: jump into the Time Machine, head out to
807,201 AD once again, land a couple hours earlier than before,
and rescue Weena. He knows where the
Morlocks will lie in wait (Time Travel has some inherent advantages), and
the Morlocks will never know what hit them.
It’s a well-thought-out plan. What
could possibly go wrong?
Well, to quote the great Morlock sage, Nebogipfel, “Cause
and Effect, when Time Machines are about, are rather awkward concepts.”
What’s To Like...
To commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the publishing of The Time Machine,
the H.G. Wells estate authorized Stephen Baxter to write a sequel. The result was The
Time Ships, and judging from the number of awards it won and/or was
nominated for (listed below), they made a good choice.
The Time Ships is an epic Hard Science Fiction novel, and fully
integrates events from The Time Machine
(along with
numerous nods to other H.G. Wells tales) into its storyline.
The novel is divided into 7 “books”, plus an
Epilogue, each one covering a ‘”jump” in time by our never-named protagonist and
his newfound sidekick , a Morlock named Nebogipfel. The jumps encompass the full temporal
spectrum – to both the end of Time itself, and way back to before the Big Bang.
Along the way, our heroes examine a number of serious themes, such as
democracy, God, war, nuclear bombs, forced sterilization (which really occurred in the US back in
the 1920’s), and evolution.
Interestingly, the Morlock viewpoint is often at odds with the Human
one. Stephen Baxter also has one huge
advantage that H.G. Wells lacked – a century in the development of Quantum
Physics. So things like Multiverses, Temporal
Paradoxes, Dyson Spheres, and Sentient Artificial Intelligence are also encountered.
I
was particularly impressed by the treatment of Temporal Paradoxes, such as “what happens if I go back in Time and kill my earlier
self?” A lot of Time Travel
novelists take pains to skirt these situations; Stephen Baxter revels in them.
Outside of our two chrono-hoppers, there aren’t a lot of characters to
keep track of, and for all the new worlds we visit, not many new species to
behold. There are the Humans, Morlocks,
and Eloi, of course; but besides that, just some post-dinosaur flora and fauna,
and the epitome of Evolution – the Universal Constructors.
The titular Time Ships don’t appear until page 447, and I learned what a
Catherine Wheel is (the fireworks, not the torture device) and who Kurt Godel
was. I never did figure out what an
Everett Phonograph was, nor when and where Filby fit in; but I was happy to see the nod to the
town of Staines (I’ve
been there!) as well as Henri Poincaré, whom I recently learned
about (see the review here).
There
were four neat drawings interspersed throughout the book, although they might not be included in every edition. 77
chapters cover 520 pages, so you can always find a good spot when you want to
stop reading for the night. The entire book is written
in the first-person POV. I read The Time Machine as a preparation for The Time Ships, but in retrospect, I
don’t think it was necessary. The ending
won’t be to everyone’s taste. It has a “2001 – A Space
Odyssey” feel to it, but I can’t picture an alternative way to end
things.
Kewlest New Word ...
Rum Cove (n.,
phrase) : a dexterous or clever rogue (possibly a Britishism).
Others : Perforce
(adv.); Lenticular
(adj.); Peripatetic
(adj.); Farrago
(n.); Benighted
(adj.).
Excerpts...
I could see
again. I had a clear view of the world –
of the green-glowing hull of the Time Ships all around me, of the earth’s bone-gleam
beyond.
I was existent
once again! – and a deep panic – a horror – of that interval of Absence pumped
through my system. I have feared no Hell
so much as non-existence – indeed, I had long resolved that I should welcome
whatever agonies Lucifer reserves for the intelligent Non-Believer, if those
pains served as proof that my consciousness still endured! (pg. 455)
An infinite
universe!
You might look
out, through the smoky clouds of London, at the stars which mark out the sky’s
cathedral roof; it is all so immense, so unchanging, that it is easy to suppose
that the cosmos is an unending thing, and that it has endured forever.
… But it cannot be so. And one only need ask a common-sense question
– why is the night sky dark? – to see
why.
If you had an
infinite universe, with stars and galaxies spread out through an endless void,
then whichever direction in the sky you looked, your eye must meet a ray of
light coming from the surface of a star.
The night sky would glow everywhere as brightly as the sun… (pg. 472)
“You and I – and Eloi and Morlock – are all, if you look at it on a
wide enough scale, nothing but cousins within the same antique mudfish family!” (pg. 106)
The biggest plus to The Time Ships is how well Stephen Baxter manages
to capture the writing style and storytelling of H.G. Wells. Paradoxically, the biggest minus
is also how well he captures that writing style and storytelling.
Science Fiction has come a long way since H.G. Wells penned The Time Machine.
There’s a lot more action now, and a lot more world-building. I still enjoy reading classic Sci-Fi stories,
but I’m also thankful they’re generally less than 200 pages in length.
Here, we have 500+ pages of century-old Sci-Fi. The pace is slow, and while Stephen Baxter
gives the reader a lot to think about, there aren’t a lot of thrills and
spills. True, this is also
inherent in any Hard Science Fiction book that’s done properly. But if you’re looking for a science fiction
novel with galaxy-invading aliens and a protagonist with a liberal libido, you
probably should skip this one, and do an Amazon search for “Space Opera”.
7½ Stars. Per Wikipedia, the laurels The Time Ships garnered are: British Science Fiction Award – 1995 (winner); John W. Campbell Memorial
Award – 1996 (winner); Philip K. Dick
Award – 1996 (winner); British
Fantasy Award – 1996 (nominee);
Arthur C. Clarke Award – 1996 (nominee);
Hugo Award – 1996 (nominee); Locus
Award – 1996 (nominee); Kurd-Lasswitz
Award, Foreign Fiction – 1996 (winner);
Premio Gigamesh Award – 1997 (winner);
Seiun Award – 1999 (winner). Wowza!
