I have not previously read anything by Steve White, which means I have not read the two previous books in this series.  I don’t feel that I needed anything else to set this book up, as White does a fine job of letting the reader know what we need to know through the course of the book.

But with that said, I have to admit that I was not very captivated with this book.  However, it may have as much to do with my perception of what the book was about and what the author was wanting to do.

My expectation was that this was going to be some serious, bad-ass sci-fi fantasy with some mind-boggling time continuum issues.  Let me quote a little from the Goodreads description of the book:

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Old Earth’s blood-drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

…  To Jason’s horror, he also learns that the Teloi aliens who were the grim reality behind the pagan pantheons of antiquity … are still active, and aiding the Transhumanists in founding an unspeakable cult. What’s more, these are a different—and far more dangerous—breed of Teloi than before.

Jason must somehow thwart the plans of the sinister allies while at the same time preventing reality itself from falling into chaos.

Intense, right?  But in the reading of this book, the intensity and excitement as described doesn’t come across.  Instead this reads as a bit of light-weight, fluffy novel.

I also have to admit that I have a problem with how we tend to romanticize pirates.  He we are, traveling back to the 17th century and carousing with pirates (pirates of the Caribbean, no less) and it comes across as fun and funny.  But we have to remember that pirates were a very violent group.  People were terrified to run into them.  Can we imagine a day in the future when people are writing about those ‘wacky Muslim extremists who blow themselves up while try to create havoc and terror’?  I hope not, but I’m sure the day will come.

I have, though, read plenty of fiction about pirates (reviewed a book within the last two or three months that featured pirates from the same era), so it’s not an issue that prevents me from enjoying a well-written work.  Unfortunately, the story just didn’t live up to the plot.

Looking for a good book?  Pirates of the Timestream, by Steve White, has some really interesting ideas and the potential for a thrilling sci-fi adventure, but instead is a quick, light read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Pirates of the Timestream

author: Steve White

series: Blood of the Heroes #3

publisher: Baen

ISBN: 1451639090

paperback, 256 pages

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE

There are a few authors that I will consistently read because they are reliable and dependable.  Joe Haldeman has always been one of those authors, for me.  Yet for all the works of his that I’ve read, I’ve somehow missed this book (and this trilogy).

This is, in my opinion, not one of Haldeman’s finest.

There are forty-one satellites, called Worlds, orbiting Earth.  The Worlds export resources to the Earth and sometimes welcome tourists from the planet.  But it seems rare for the World citizens to head planet-side.  Until Marianne O’Hara participates in a year-long cultural exchange.  Marianne explore the world, not unlike Alice in a metropolitan wonderland, until there is a fast-paced action/adventure sequence to wrap things up.

This book is all about world-building (or worlds-building), character establishing, and author commentary on politics and social mores.  This book is not about story or plot.  And that makes for a difficult read.

I was quite interested in this story as it was being established.  The worlds were unique and fascinating and I actually wanted to spend more time there.  And Marianne’s initial journey showed promise.  And when Marianne finds herself caught up in a revolution, the story is wild and exciting.

Unfortunately, the middle portion of the book, with Marianne exploring the planet, feels like Haldeman’s views of political and social sciences … of the era in which this written and where he feared we were headed.  This is fine if it can be done naturally, as part of the story, but this feels completely separate from the plot.  If this section were missing, it wouldn’t affect the story.

I’m glad to have read this, but I wouldn’t recommend this except to those who are already fans of Haldeman’s work.

Looking for a good book?  Worlds, by Joe Haldeman, is the first book in a trilogy that shows great potential, but is an uneven story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher , through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Worlds

author: Joe Haldeman

series: Worlds #1

publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy

ASIN: B00PI184NQ

Kindle Edition, 262 pages