The Time Ships

by Stephen Baxter

Book Overview

There is a secret passage through time ...and it leads all the way to the end of Eternity. But the journey has a terrible cost. It alters not only the future but he present in which we live. A century... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061056480
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.4" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Sequel to H.G. Well's "The Time Machine"

Be prepared to spend more than a few hours reading "The Time Ships", because you won't be able to put it down. Stephen Baxter writes in H.G Well's style that builds on the events found in the original book. The reader can effortlessly follow a seamless transition of the time traveler's adventure to save Weena from the Morlocks, with a few surprises.

Did Not Want This Book To End!

Only recently did I learn of Stephen Baxter's authorized sequel to Wells' "The Time Machine", one of my favorite books. This is without a doubt the best sci-fi story I have ever read. Baxter's beginning blends beautifully with the ending of Wells' story and explains why the Time Traveller never returned to his home in 1897.Baxter's creativity brings a sense of wonder to the reader that is pure joy and adventure. (While reading it, I even listened to the sound track from the original "Time Machine" movie and the Russell Garcia score just made the entire experience even better). The story's ending was very emotional and showed that, for all the Time Traveller had seen and experienced - from the beginning of time to the end of the world - it was his human feelings toward another that mattered the most.One last observation - It was my thinking that Baxter left the story open ended for another possible sequel involving the Time Traveller's adventures with the Morlocks. I can only hope that is true, for he has all the time in the world...

Excellent sequel to Wells' masterpiece

As a life-long fan of H.G. Wells, I must say that I avoided picking up Baxter's book for several years. I doubted that anyone could seriously improve upon the original novel. When I came across a relatively undamaged copy of "The Time Ships" in a used bookstore, though, I finally decided to give it a try. Needless to say, I became so engrossed in the story that I finished the five hundred plus page book in three days. Although Stephen Baxter appears to be a scientist by training, he is much better at seizing and maintaining the reader's attention than many authors I have recently read. While continuing the narrative voice of Wells' Victorian Time Traveller, Baxter radically expands the scope and depth of the original universe, incorporating many modern ideas about causality, parallel worlds, and quantum mechanics. The fact he does so without overwhelming the reader but instead inspiring a genuine sense of wonder and awe is an achievement in and of itself. Baxter also makes a number of allusions to Wells' other fiction, including the use of Plattnerite, land ironclads, and a vision of nuclear and conventional warfare between Britain and Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, all of which are amusing to those of us who recognize them as the story progresses. In the end Baxter doesn't so much surpass Wells as simply take the original tale to a whole new level, extending and reinterpreting it for a twenty-first century audience.

A definite must-read for any true sci-fi reader

This is the first time I have ever read Stephen Baxter, and already I am anxious for more of his work. This book was probably one of--if not the--most imaginative sci-fi novels I have ever read. It starts out with the Time Traveller, determined to save Weena--the Eloi girl he left behind in the far future--taking another fateful trip into the future. But instead of a repeat of the original Wells book, but with a save-the-damsel-in-distress storyline, it turned into an epic journey through alternate histories and future worlds that are just astonishing as you read the book. It takes you to visions of alternate futures, as well as pasts, such as a sphere around the sun, a war-torn Earth of 1939, the Paleocene era of fifty-million years ago, an alternate reality with machines as the heirs of man, and finally to the most fantastic vision of an infinite universe created and ruled over by the true power of the human Mind. The book closes with the Traveller being returned to his own reality so that he is able to go and save Weena in the far-off age of 800,000 years hence(I wont give away the ending). Throughout the book, Stephen Baxter gives you insights into the world of Quantum Physics, an aspect that brings the book to have a more real-world feel than some bizarre odyssey. Stephen Baxter is a true visionary. Someone who is able to see the current trends of science and incorporate them into a masterfully executed story. This book, in my opinion, is among the greatest sci-fi masterpieces of all time. The story never gets too technical, but never reaches down to the level of a child-like fantasy story. It is a story not only about time travel, but about the nature of mankind itself. but the most important thing that this book teaches you is that no matter where you are, or what you do, the future is a world of infinite possibilities and it is up to us choose the right ones throughout our lives. For who knows what the future holds? Possibilities, my friend. Possibilities, indeed.

A worthy sequal

Writing sequels to the works of others is always a risky business. Authors, by their nature, want to stamp their works with their own style, which is precisely what you don't want to do when expanding someone elses work. This is doubly true for something that is as much a masterpiece and a classic as Well's Time Machine.Baxter's work clearly respects the original. It is obvious that Baxter did a great deal of study from the original and worked very hard to duplicate the cadence and characterization from the original. This alone might have lead to a dull doppelganger, but Baxter manages to expand the original story without trying to deviate from its style. The conceit that Baxter uses is to employ all the considerations that science fiction and physics have given to the subject of time travel in the hundred years since the original, and to incorporate them into the story. The result is one where the old novel retains its charm but is enhanced by the new additions to the story.It is a top flight effort and it succeed brilliantly. Baxter's Time Ships is a worth sequal to the original and deserves to be read by anyone who loved the original.