Island in the Sea of Time

By: S. M. Stirling

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.

A startling phenomenon has occurred: The island of Nantucket has been swept into the long-ago past. With its inhabitants adrift in the year 1250 BC, there is only one question to be answered: Can they survive?

©1998 S. M. Stirling (P)2008 Tantor

Excellent in its genre!

Where does Island in the Sea of Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best I've listened to this year; looking forward to more books from this author!

What did you like best about this story?

Intriguing premise - the entire island of Nantucket, as it exists in this timeframe, is transported to the past. The people on Nantucket at the time have to learn to survive with what they have at hand, and learn to live off the land all over again. The details are not neglected - changes in stars, the animals on the shore and the fish in the oceans. More sailing information than I've been exposed to, and information on native peoples that were likely alive at that time make this a learning experience as well. It's like living history! I am aware that it's fictional, but seems very well researched and developed.

runon scenes

great story but the sex scenes are over long and get painful to listen to after the first 4 minutes

Cool premise, trash ending

Cool premise, and explored some interesting angles. I'm a big fan of the idea (Dr. Stone is my favorite currently-running anime series) but the ending was just a painfully stupid resolution. I knew it had to happen that way because good guys gotta win, bad guys gotta lose, but the setup for it was bad and the ending just left a sour taste in my mouth. Closer to 2.5 stars than 3 imo.

Islands versus Dies the fire

Where does Island in the Sea of Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think you should read Islands in the sea of time series befor you do Dies the Fire. It makes more sense as they will flow better that way.

What other book might you compare Island in the Sea of Time to and why?

Obviously Dies the Fire/Emberverse series.

Have you listened to any of Todd McLaren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Todd is a good orator.

Any additional comments?

Great listen.

A Real Favorite

one of my favorite series. I listen to it at least once a year. read the books repeatedly too.

I increased my membership to get book 2 sooner!

What made the experience of listening to Island in the Sea of Time the most enjoyable?

The concept of time travel as an abberation (moving Nantucket, just an hour from where I live on Cape Cod, MA) and how the people survived is fantastic! This book was total fun. What would I do along with a bunch of neighbors I don't know 1500 years in the past! I doubt we'd fare as well as the characters in this book. I had to keep listening, even sat in my car if I was playing while driving. I had to force myself to stop it and then continued listening with the little speakers on my Kindle into my home.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Island in the Sea of Time?

There are too many memorable moments in this audiobook. I love the character Capt. Allston, a gay black woman of the US Coast Guard travels with a small crew across the Atlantic Ocean, using the wind, almost no electricity as they had to conserve batteries and figure out how to harness energy. She lands in England, uses unbelievable diplomacy with the help of history professors who learn the languages very quickly. She has to fight hand to hand combat, help peaceful people who are take as slaves by "the Sun People", finds true love, and chases the mutinous ex-Coast Guard Walker who tries to become a "God" and King. He is bad to the bone, sick and worse is his girlfriend who is an MD. Dr. Han is an S & M enthusiast who partners with Walker as "Queen" and tortures slaves they defeated in smaller wars before their war with Captain Allston.

Have you listened to any of Todd McLaren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I am not aware of hearing other performances before by Todd McLaren, but he did a superb job here.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Future Back Shock

Any additional comments?

I can't wait to listen to the second book!

Powerful

S.M. Stirling is my favorite author, not just one of his books, all of his books are gold to me. I have listened to Island in the Sea of Time many, many times over the years. I cringe when he infers to McAndrews that the people of Egypt today are the indigenous ancient greats. Egyptians like modern-day Americans are not the original people, invasions are well documented, and there were two major invasions going back to the time after the great pyramids were built, In the age of misinformation, fiction sometimes becomes truth to those unwilling to use their common sense or research. I gave this book five stars in all three categories, this was the only openly glaring sour spot for me, read the book, and you will become a fan too

Good book

I really enjoyed this book. Can’t wait to continue the series. Just a fun easy to read book.

Great

Great concept, characters and story. Bought 3 more of his books

A good beginning for a excellent serial… 😉

If there is a flawed part to listening to this book, it is that there is no discernible pause when switching from one scene of the storyline to another, listening to the protagonists, then the next your hearing about the male agonist who was not in the scene. It makes for a wrenched shifting of one's thoughts, then back again. There are no discernable scene shifts. This might be ok when reading, and you can see paragraphs or page breaks, but Todd just keeps reading ignoring a paragraph break. Other than that he does a credible job of narrating and voicing the different characters. I read this story some years ago, I enjoyed it then and enjoyed listening to it again, now that my eyesight not as good.