The Time Ships

Wow.

The absolutely jaw dropping sequel to the book that spawned every tale of time travel you've ever read, The Time Machine. Baxter takes Wells' masterpiece and makes it entirely his own in this epic, ambitious tale looks at the possibility of time travels in ways no one has ever even contemplated.

After escaping the year 802,701 AD, the Traveller returns home to find himself restless, a man no longer bound to his time. It takes very little for him to plan another expedition into the future, to return back to the time of the Eloi and the Morlocks to save his beloved Weena. But when the journey begins and it rapidly becomes clear that the future he is travelling into is nothing like the one he traversed before, the Traveller quickly finds himself on a journey that will not only take him to the end of time, but also to the Beginning and Beyond.

I'll be honest; I'm not a fan of Well's The Time Machine. I appreciate the enormous impact it has had not only on science fiction, but fiction in general, but I'm not a fan of the story itself. My tastes for Wells runs more along the lines of The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man. So it was with a bit of trepidation I approached Baxter's sequel. After all, I generally don't read modern spin-offs of classics. So what made me read this one? It's been nominated for 7 major SFF awards in the past, and won two of those. I figure that makes it at the very least worth a try.

I definitely didn't expect it to rock my boat like it did.

This book is stunning to imagine, breathtaking to read, and absolutely mind-boggling to consider. Baxter not only takes the hard science fiction approach to time travel but also considers it from a metaphysical standpoint, and the ideas he presents in this novel are nothing short of incredible to wrap your mind around. Not only does he delve into the ramifications of time travel itself on the present and the future, but he follows up with the evolution of mankind and the ramifications time travel can have on them, and also the universal consequences; with an in-depth look at everything from time travel as a weapon to a means of triggering the next stage of evolution in humanity, Baxter asks questions and presents possibilities that will spark your imagination and make you reconsider everything you think you know about time travel and its paradoxes.

But of course, it's not all about what you explore, but how you present that exploration, and Baxter does an incredible job at this.

From very literally the start of this book, Baxter pulls no punches as he moulds the world into one terrifying possibility after another, using hard science to explain and explore and create phenomena that makes for an absolute roller coaster ride of a novel. I think that was easily my favourite part of the novel, the explosive changes Baxter makes to the present day world and the incredible explanations he provides for these changes, that leave you guessing just how much of it is ersatz science. With perfect alternation between action and exploration, Baxter hooks the reader with carefully laid out mysteries from start to finish, asking questions and presenting scenarios that leaves you guessing and absorbed quite simply wanting more.

And then there's what really makes the book the perfect sequel; Baxter seamlessly copies Wells' style of writing. So many parts of this book screamed Wells so loudly at times I found it hard to believe Baxter didn't simply modify old notes of his to create his story from. I cannot begin to explain how much more this made me enjoy the book; I'm more of a fantasy fan, and before my recent sojourns into the genre the only science fiction books I've ever enjoyed have been Wells. I'm a fan. And Baxter pays incredible homage to the Father of Science Fiction in his sequel. He even includes the occasional Easter Egg to Wells' other works; this is a book where the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts.

There's no doubt in my mind that Baxter pulled off this outrageously ambitious novel. Perfectly capturing Wells' spirit and updating it for a modern audience, he weaves a seamless chronic adventure that explores time travel in so many ways, it's ramifications, it's repercussions, and it's possibilities, that you would be hard pressed not to enjoy this incredible novel. As exciting and ambitious and speculative as anything that's ever been written, and an absolutely thrilling ride to top it all off. This book is undeniably a must read for Wells and SF fans in general.