Time Quest

[tom]

Anyone read the first volume in the Clarke/Baxter collaboration, which seems to be a backward/forward in time version of our Mosaic Earth, like October the First is Too Late (Hoyle) or Timestorm (Dickinson). Is it any good?

[wkwillis]

I bought it in hardcover. It's just about some alien space bats that grab slices of earth's history, including the slices that have Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. The farthest forward is 2037, but they go back to several hundred million years ago.
Yes, they do mix it up, at Babylon. There is room for a sequel on the North American continent.

[tom]

wkwillis:
Interesting. How were the 2037ers depicted? Were they at least as far beyond us as we are beyond 1971, or were they just comtemporaries with different dates in their palm pilots?

[wkwillis]

Originally Posted by tom

wkwillis:
Interesting. How were the 2037ers depicted? Were they at least as far beyond us as we are beyond 1971, or were they just comtemporaries with different dates in their palm pilots?

Their palm pilots could talk, actual AI. No other changes. Chemical fueled helicopters, an Afghan war still going on with a return to retribution massacre as a colonial tactic, etc.
No new power sources, no immortality or rejuvenation, no loss of the cities to cheap isotope separation nukes, no orbital beam weapons, no miracle nanomaterials, no ubiquitous surveillance, etc.

[tom]

Sounds like Nichole (sp?) in the SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog, except there was a lot of other ultra-tech there. Thanks for saving me the money!