- Paperback: 630 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; New Ed edition (11 Sep 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006480128
- ISBN-13: 978-0006480129
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.2 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 149,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
What if the time machine from H.G. Wells' classic novel of the same name had fallen into government hands? That's the question that led Stephen Baxter to create this modern-day sequel, which combines a basic Wellsian premise with a Baxteresque universe-spanning epic. The Time Traveller, driven by his failure to save Weena from the Morlocks, sets off again for the future. But this time the future has changed, altered by the very tale of the Traveller's previous journey.
Review
‘Stephen Baxter really does stand on the shoulders of giants in order to see further than they did … The Time Ships is a brilliant piece of work. It is a sequel in the best possible sense.’ Interzone
‘The most outstanding work of imaginative fiction since Stapleton’s Last and First Men … I’m almost tempted to say (I know this is blasphemy) that the sequel is better than the original …’ Arthur C. Clark
‘Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein succeeded in doing it, but very few others. Now Stephen Baxter joins their exclusive ranks. The reaction is that which C. S. Lewis referred to when he described science fiction as the only genuine consciousness-expanding drug.’ New Scientist
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Normally I do not approve of a follow-up or sequel to the work of another author, whether dead or living. However, such is the power and profundity of The Time Ships that I would have to make an exception in this case. Baxter cleverly adopts some of the style of the original H.G.Wells classic, without compromising his own epic approach to SF. The story is a tour de force, taking the reader backwards and forwards across great gulfs of time, dipping into alternative histories which twist and turn...The excitement never lets up until the jaw-dropping ending.
The Time Ships stands on its own as an SF classic, and is as good as anything that Clarke or Bear or Silverberg have ever written. Baxter is quite simply in the SF Premier League with the best of them, in my humble opinion.
The Time Ships stands on its own as an SF classic, and is as good as anything that Clarke or Bear or Silverberg have ever written. Baxter is quite simply in the SF Premier League with the best of them, in my humble opinion.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Time travel has always been my favorite genre of science fiction, yet it is probably one of the hardest to get right. Aside from the science of time travel, there's the eternal paradoxes that time travel poses - such as how one can travel to the past, effect change (after all, where's the fun in traveling through time if you can't muck about with it?), and not create an impossible conundrum in the process. Wells's The Time Machine (Penguin Classics) neatly stepped around the whole problem by having his unnamed Traveler voyage into the future rather than the past. By contrast, Stephen Baxter tackles these issues head-on in this follow-up to Wells's story, a worthy sequel to a landmark work of science fiction.
Picking up neatly where Wells left off, Baxter's tale ranges far into the future and back to the beginning of Time itself, encountering realities profoundly affected by the invention of time travel. Accompanying the Traveler is Nebogipfel, a Morlock unlike any invented by Wells. Nebogipfel is a sensitive character who supplies the modern scientific explanations to what the 19th century narrator encounters, and the friendship that emerges between the two of them is one of the highlights of this book,
Nebogipfel also serves to answer many of the traditional paradoxes of time travel that appear in the course of their travels in time. Though many will find the explanations unsatisfactory, Baxter should be commended for confronting them head-on and creating a much richer novel in the process. Fans of the original novel will also respect his homage to Wells and the respect that Baxter pays to many of the Wells's ideas, though in the end this is a must-read for any fan of brilliantly imagined, well-written science fiction.
Picking up neatly where Wells left off, Baxter's tale ranges far into the future and back to the beginning of Time itself, encountering realities profoundly affected by the invention of time travel. Accompanying the Traveler is Nebogipfel, a Morlock unlike any invented by Wells. Nebogipfel is a sensitive character who supplies the modern scientific explanations to what the 19th century narrator encounters, and the friendship that emerges between the two of them is one of the highlights of this book,
Nebogipfel also serves to answer many of the traditional paradoxes of time travel that appear in the course of their travels in time. Though many will find the explanations unsatisfactory, Baxter should be commended for confronting them head-on and creating a much richer novel in the process. Fans of the original novel will also respect his homage to Wells and the respect that Baxter pays to many of the Wells's ideas, though in the end this is a must-read for any fan of brilliantly imagined, well-written science fiction.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What happened in H. G. Wells' classic 1890s story 'The Time Machine' after the Time Traveller embarked on his last journey?
Stephen Baxter takes up the tale in this mindbending, timewarping sequel, using scientific concepts that were not available to Wells. This allows for some rather knowing jokes at the expense of the narrator -- the Time Traveller himself -- who has to confront the Big Bang, radioactivity, quantum mechanics and so on from his own 1891 perspective. Baxter even writes in a fairly convincing Wellsian style although some of his tics get irritating in a book of this length, such as his habit of ending paragraphs with exclamation points! (Oh look, here's another one!) but at least he doesn't have Clarke's irritating and lazy habit of ending poorly constructed sentences with lines of dots...
You can enjoy this story on its own, but it probably helps if you're familiar with the original story, and there are lots of explicit and submerged references to other Wellsian stories such as The Shape Of Things To Come, The Land Ironclads, Empire of the Ants and Aepyornis Island. But Baxter maintains the Wellsian spirit of goggle-eyed adventure (more exclamation!!) without lapsing into Wells' habit, especially in later and longer works, of preaching about social reform and world government (indeed, Baxter sends this up in one episode set in war-torn London in an alternative 1938.)
The story ranges from the comic to the cosmic, and during episodes of the latter, Baxter surpasses Wells in his evocation of the grandeur of space and time, coming closer to that less-well-known genius of early British SF, Olaf Stapledon (Star Maker, First and Last Men).
Give yourself a thorough mental workout with this story that is at the same time exciting in its own right and an expert tribute to all that is best in the classic science fiction of a steam-driven age!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A waste of time (geddit?)
I got this book having re-read the original a few months back and thought it would be good. It wasn't. The mock HG Welles style is clunky and contrived. Read more
Published 17 months ago by N. Weatherspoon
An enjoyable romp, but some trimming would have been welcome.
Warning: plot spoilers! A strong sequel to the early Wells novelette _The Time Machine_, which is best read before _The Time Ships_. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Stokie Dave
A worthy sequel
I loved the `Time Machine' by H.G. Wells. This authorized sequel is even better, expanding the scope of the original premise. Read more
Published 19 months ago by MWA
H G Wells Would Have Loved It
This authorised sequel to 'THE TIME MACHINE' is a mind-boggling journey through time.
If you're a time-travel enthusiast then this book is an absolute must. Read more
If you're a time-travel enthusiast then this book is an absolute must. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. John Frank Herbert
Book The Time Ships
This item was purchased for a third party who was very pleased with the packageing and delivery timescale.
Published on 8 May 2010 by R. W. Mason
Cracking read
Worth the read. Well written, intelligent, not obvious and a great follow on from original, 100 years on. Keeps your interest throughout and almost unputtdownable.
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Eclectic Reader 101
Not the Best Sequel
Sequels of The Time Machine are not new and I have read a few of them: The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper; Morlock Night by K.W. Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by R. J. Hole
Superb stuff
This was a splendid sequel to The Time Machine, dealing with the knock on effects throughout Time of the nameless Traveller's first trip forwards to 802701. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2009 by John Hopper
H.G.Wells out-Welled!
I first read this book when it was originally published in 1995 and loved it. It has sat on my bookshelf ever since along with all the books I've ever read and cannot bear to be... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2008 by Iphidaimos
if you love HG Wells, read this book!
This book is a most worthy sequel, the style is very HG Wells; the story is everything you would want a sequel to The Time Machine to be. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2008 by T.
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