Nantucket Trilogy

I recently finished the “Nantucket” trilogy by S.M. Stirling, which starts with Island In The Sea Of Time, and continues and completes in Against The Tide Of Years and On The Oceans Of Eternity.  I can’t recommend it highly enough, though if you are into the alt-history or time travel genres at all heavily, no doubt you have already read them.

The first book stands on its own, and could have been taken as a one-shot novel, at the same time it leaves you curious about the world and the scenario the author spawned.

Don’t read the second one without the third handy to follow immediately, as they are effectively the two parts of one contiguous story, taking place several years after the first volume.

How famous is the original book?  I lurk sometimes on the Soc.History.What-If usenet newsgroup, and it is common - or was for a while - to see posts there titled [something] ISOT, where ISOT means “in the sea of time,” shorthand for applying the same thing as happened to Stirling’s late 20th century Nantucket, and [something] is generally a specific geographical area and time, or perhap a person or people.

What did happen to Nantucket in this series?

It begins with something that comes to be called simply “The Event.” It’s as if the electrical storm to end all EMPs engulfs the island and some surrounding waters in March, before the summah people have much chance to arrive.  Next thing they know, they are back around 1250 BC, cut of from everything and everybody in the modern world.  Survival and conflict ensue.  “They” fortuitously includes a Coast Guard training vessel, its captain and crew.

While it’s especially bad to break between the 2nd and 3rd volumes, I would also suggest reading them promptly after the first.  It must have been awful, waiting for them to come out.  Not that a Robert Jordan fan would know anything about that kind of anguish.  Speaking of which, I had an amusing crossover idea: Island In The Wheel Of Time.  Heh.

I haven’t started them yet, but there is another near-complete trilogy about what happens “up in the twentieth” as a result of The Event, starting with Dies The Fire.  That set is known as the Emberverse series.  Deb read and loved the first one.  The setup?  Basically in our time The Event is something of an EMP to end all EMPs, changing physics as we know it, rendering modern technology obsolete.  Action ensues.  I’m not hurrying to read it because I will want to read them as close together as possible.

Anyway, I bought Island In The Sea Of Time originally for the premise and because I saw it mentioned so often.  Then it became one of those ones I would pick up and say “do I want to read this next… naw, I’ll read this one instead” over and over, like the cover made me question whether I’d like it.

As so often happens, it turned out to be near impossible to put down, starting with a bang and not letting go.

I frankly would love to see more in that world, and would be unsurprised to find fan fiction exists.  The essential conflict is tied up at the end of the three - something you will have trouble believing even 50 pages from the end - but there are enough loose ends and potential consequences for endless speculation and extrapolation.  Apparently there is a short story set 15 years later, in with a collection of other stories.

He seems to cover everything in these books.  For instance, what happens with religion?  Whither Christian churches before Christ is born?  At one point I told Deb it sometimes felt like the radio on Gilligan’s Island.  I’d think of an angle or a question, and within pages it would just happen to be addressed.

Anyway, highly recommended.

1. I enjoyed Sea of Time, but not enough to track down the sequels, and the Emberverse somewhat more. I an deeply attached to the somewhat similar 1632 series by Eric Flint et al. I was reading the first book today, off the Honorverse CDROM on my work laptop. I’ve lost count, but this has to be at least the 30th time I’ve read it. The second book is a bit weak at times, as Flint hadn’t started out to write a series, but the endless speculation and extrapolation has become intrinsic to the package.

   Posted by triticale  on  08/22  at  10:34 PM

2. I just ordered all three books for Chan, as he loves this genre. I’m sure he’ll offer some feedback for you when he’s done.

   Posted by  on  08/22  at  11:23 PM

3. 1) I met Stirling at a Kaffeklatch at Worldcon when he was talking about how he was working on Dies the Fire, and what happens to physics in the present when the Super EMP goes off. 
   2) I’ve read the first two of this Emberverse series.  VERY good.  I liked the obvious thought he put into the scenario.  He really asked good questions. 
   3) If you want a really good Stirling standalone novel, try Peshawar Lancers.

   Completely unrelated, wanted to refer this article to you, and I’m being lazy: 
   http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/08/is_windows_inhe.html

   Posted by  on  08/23  at  05:29 PM

4. I’m close to finishing the first book and look forward to starting the second. I don’t know why I waited so long to read them as I am a fan of S.M. Stirling.

   Posted by DCE  on  08/27  at  01:02 PM

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