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On the Oceans of Eternity | Rating | |
| B | |||
| S. M. Stirling | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, On the Oceans of Eternity | ||
The third book of the trilogy returns to Stirling's forte: military fiction. There's an awful lot of fighting in this novel. Of course, if you read the previous two book, you will hardly be surprised. After all, the Republic of Nantucket is at war with Isketerol in southern Spain, with Walker in Greece (with most of the fighting in the middle east), and the expedition to cross North America by land has found a secret base of the enemy's.
The book is very good, mostly. Stirling has stopped going back and forth in time so much. It still happens, but it's a difference of a few months instead of years, and they're on different fronts; when he stays to a similar locality, the time flows normally. He does still place all the datemarks at the start of each chapter, even when there are multiple datemarks; it would really be nice if he starts putting them at the start of each section.
The main problem with the book is in the ending. I can't go into exact detail without spoiling things, but it's a letdown, with the war ending much sooner than expected. I had been wondering whether there was a book after this when suddenly things started to wrap up. In the end it was unsatisfying, like a wonderful Thanksgiving meal: you may not enjoy all the dishes, but they were all well-cooked. The only problem is the dessert, instead of pumpkin pie, here is a granola bar. Not right.
There is hope of sorts, though. The last bits clearly paved the way for a sequel, should he chose to write it. It might not be a bad idea, really; I'd very much like to see what the world is like ten or twenty or fifty years later.
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