To Turn the Tide

Make the Darkness Light

De: S. M. Stirling

Narrado por: Dean Gallagher

New time travel military adventure from New York Times bestselling novelist S. M. Stirling

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Everyone could see it coming. But one man could do something about it. Oh, he couldn't avert the nuclear holocaust, but a scientist in Austria, ruthlessly using billions of research dollars for his own purposes, set himself up and out: he created a time machine, and filled a warehouse with low-tech survival gear. Too bad he didn't get to use it himself.

Instead, a team of American grad students, led by their professor, is sent back to the late Roman Empire. Even though they are experts in this time and place, they are about to realize that books and actual experience are very different things.

If they can survive, they hope to remake the world into a better place. But that's a big "if."

©2024 S. M. Stirling (P)2024 Tantor Media

Turn the Tide worked for me!

I experienced "To Turn the Tide" on three levels.
1. I like Roman history, I like time travel, and I like that the author did his homework. Three thumbs up! :-)

2. This book is the latest "What if the Romans..." speculation. Our warrior-scholar protagonist and his merry band of grad students are the vehicle by which the author explores his "What if". My humble opinion is that this book raises the bar on "What if the Romans..." stories, but that's just me.

3. What if you were a brilliant scientist? What if you were convinced that the human race would end in nuclear fire? What if the best solution you found is to launch an expedition into the past, alter history, and unite the world centuries ago? With brilliant planning, you put together the supplies, the personnel, and the circumstances needed for this daring expedition. Like Moses, you do not get to enter the promised land. Unlike Moses, you only get a few pages of the story. Fortunately, your personnel spontaneously take up the quest -- and the rest of the story -- instead of just selfishly making themselves masters of ancient Rome.

At last!

A book I’ve always wanted to read. I just hope he continues the story! Five more volumes please.

What I’ve fantasized about all my life

It’s as for Sterling might have a Time Machine, the feel, smell and attitude of the book is so spot on. I appreciate the non equivocation about bringing the Roman Empire to eternal world domination… considering the end it faced in the original timeline.
Besides all books in between, I look forward to the last book in the series, I want to know how it all ended up.

SM Stirling as you love it!

Fans of SM Stirling will truly love this book. Well-researched and with great story lines, I’m already looking forward to the next book!

Another great series from S.M.Stirling

Very nice new series from a long established author, combining a fairly realistic time travel story.

It's OK

Engineers will likely orgasm while listening to this work. The rest of us not so much. Lots of technical descriptions of the gadgetry used by ancient Romans in the year 165 AD ff. In the plot, our heroes were transported back in time during a nuclear war in 2033. I finished the book, but found it hard to stay engaged. It’s clear the author did lots of research to make his picture of ancient Rome accurate and should be complemented on this, but he failed to write an absorbing story IMHO.

Disappointing.

This book is packed with technical detail and history.

Unfortunately, the author forgot to include a story. The main characters are all 'Mary Sue's', perfectly suited to their task, with no difficulties or shortcomings. There is no conflict in this story, no setbacks, no plot twists. It's simply an A to B telling of a power fantasy....what if an ex-military college professor time traveled to the Roman Empire with a wagon load of handpicked modern technology with nothing to lose and the goal of bootstrapping the Romans into a modern Empire....for reasons.

This last is my biggest problem with the novel.....no real reason is ever given for jumpstarting technology in Rome....just vaguely.....'things could be better with modern technology'.

Now I have no problem with books that are mostly exposition, and no problem with power fantasies.

But it's not very satisfying when there isn't even the semblance of a plot to move things forward.