Time's Eye

A Time Odyssey, Book 1

By: Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind - until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline. Instead, the world becomes a patchwork of eras, from prehistory to 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants.

Scattered across the planet are floating silver orbs impervious to all weapons and impossible to communicate with. Are these technologically advanced devices responsible for creating and sustaining the rifts in time? Are they cameras through which inscrutable alien eyes are watching? Or are they something stranger and more terrifying still?

The answer may lie in the ancient city of Babylon, where two groups of refugees from 2037 - three cosmonauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station, and three United Nations peacekeepers on a mission in Afghanistan - have detected radio signals: the only such signals on the planet, apart from their own. The peacekeepers find allies in nineteenth-century British troops and in the armies of Alexander the Great. The astronauts, crash-landed in the steppes of Asia, join forces with the Mongol horde led by Genghis Khan. The two sides set out for Babylon, each determined to win the race for knowledge...and the power that lies within.

Yet the real power is beyond human control, perhaps even human understanding. As two great armies face off before the gates of Babylon, it watches, waiting.

©2005 Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An exciting tale full of high-tech physics, military tactics and larger-than-life characters in the first of two novels related to the bestselling senior author's Space Odyssey series." ( Publishers Weekly)

Took a chance, and loved it!

I wasn't sure about this book when I saw it, but I needed something to listen to on my desktop so I got it.

I love it!

It is well written, the naration is very good, and its a fun what if book. It requires you to suspend reality abit but go ahead and just enjoy, remember its fiction.

Good bit of Fun

This is a fun little story, actually kind of reminds me of the Marvel comic series "Secret Wars" in which the Beyonder grabs heroes and villains and sets them against one another on a planet built from chunks of other worlds.
Was it perfect? No. But it moves at a good pace, there is just enough convenience to keep things moving without feeling too contrived (I mean the language barrier would be much more of an issue than they make of it) and you get some good action out of it.
I think the biggest issue is that the "epilogue" for lack of a better term is too long. The real ending is the resolution of the battle, it is not derping around Battle World, the whole ending (I won't spoil) should have been the prologue to the NEXT BOOK, not the ending to this one.

Interesting story

The idea of Khan vs Alexander is one that is both intriguing and silly. However the time travel genre has always captivated me. Time's Eye is a unique spin in this type of story and I enjoyed it as such.

Is this one of Clarke's better books? I don't think so. It pales in comparison to Rama or 2001. There was one sticking spot for me, however. I have a very hard time accepting the character of Bisesa Dutt. She is a Lieutenant in the British Army stationed in Afghanistan, yet she is fully versed in physics and an expert in String Theory. Someone with her intelligence and qualifications would not be in a military helicopter on the front lines of a war zone.

The writing, I suspect, was all Baxter with Clarke producing and modelling the plot line. There were holes in the plot and loose ends and I am interested to know if these will be explored in the sequels, which I will read next.

I didn't love this book, but I enjoyed it. As for the performance of John Lee, I think he's a great reader, but some of his voices grate on me personally. Especially his American accents. In particular, Josh, who's voice is more efeminant than Bisesa's. At times I momentarily thought Sable was speaking when in fact it was Josh.

Overall he has wonderful pacing and inflection. Lee also exceeds my pronunciation expectations. His pronunciations are consistent and outstanding. Many British readers are terribly inconsistent with words ending in the letter "a". I realize it is an accent, but hearing a reader say "Montanter" rather than "Montana" or "Florider" rather than "Florida" followed a sentence or 2 later with the correct pronunciation, bothers me. Lee doesn't do this, at least I didn't catch him doing it.

As the time travel/alternate history genre goes Time's Eye is a middling book that still manages to hold the readers interest. Perhaps this is due to the name recognition of both the authors or maybe the unique premise.

An excellent and edifying read!

This book was such an outstanding mix of pivotal times in history with wonderful human detail. It was also an exploration of our drive toward conflict and destruction. This story thru developing its characters also explored physics and current cutting edge scientific theory well woven into the narrative. And all with great character development with very diverse characters. A book I was always looking for excuses to put my headphones on to continue! I even snuck an earbud in during a not too stimulating chat when someone interrupted my housework and more importantly my enjoyment of Time’s Eye on Audible!

I felt like a better read person in each of these areas with the new titbits and reminders I took from various elements of the story and found myself with the author I think, speculating on the nature of space, time and our existence.

A great read, my only complaint is that I got to the end!

Clarke another masterpiece

Fits like a glove with the rest of the series as it should, as you knew it would

Good... Buuuuuuuut

I enjoyed the story and a excellent job was done on the reading. It is my understanding that this is going to be a series. book one started things off good. Buuuut! The sex and the act of bestiality really detracted from the listen. That kind of stuff should be left out. Listener be warned.

Completely Enthralled

This book has everything I love.... Ancient history, time travel, alexander the great, Babylon etc. The story is kind of hard to follow at first and it seams a bit rushed with way too much information at one time. Once I got used to it I couldn't stop listening. Can't wait to start the next book

Excellent series, though narrator not so good

The premise is excellent, as would be expected from Clarke. The fact that unlike Clarke's classics, this was written in much more rencent times, he includes a slew of current scientific ideas that will tickle the imaginations of hard sci-fi fans. I was disappointed, however, by the reader. He does not seem capable of varying his voice enough to create separate voices for each character. He instead tries to rely upon his poor foreign accents, assigning a horrendously stereotypical regional or foreign accent to each character. Some of them are so aweful (like his hideous attempts at US regional accents) that it really detracted from the wonderful writing of the book. I guess I've been spoiled by Lloyd James (amazingly talented narrator of a number of superb Heinlein books available here -- check them out!!).

Excellent Listen!

This is an excellent SciFi novel. Very well written, imaginative and very believable. The reader is one of the best!

Another Fantastic Read from Clarke and Baxter!

Do you like Arthur C Clarke? Have you read and did you enjoy the 2001 Space Odyssey series? Do you enjoy history? Do you enjoy a different spin on stories about time than the standard time travel cliches? Have you read and did you enjoy the other book that Clarke and Baxter wrote together entitled The Light of Other Days?

If you answered yes to 1 or more of these questions, than you should download this book. It's great. I cared about some of these characters more than I normally do in an Arthur C Clarke book... maybe this is a credit to Stephen Baxter? Perhaps their writting together helps to bring the characters into clearer focus.

I am not really a fan of historical fiction or using characters from ancient history in any form of fiction - but I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome this book is! Don't let the summary and the "historical science fiction / time adventure" summary scare you off! This book wasn't at all what I expected and I was hooked until the end!

The narration is fantastic!