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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you like Time Travel, you'll love this book., 19 Aug 2002
The Ivanhoe Gambit is the first in a line of truely amazing books. Its writer, Simon Hawke is one of my favourites and his novels have given me hours of cheap (i first picked up most of the series in a second hand book shop at 50p a pop!)thrilling entertainment.
In the Gambit we are introduced to the Time Commandoes the elite group of future soldiers that protect the integrity of the timesteam and complete timestream readjustments should anyone alter the original scenario. Lucas Priest joined to experience the thrill of the time wars, survived but civilian life had lost its flavour so he rejoined with a commision. Finn Delaney was one of the worst discipline cases the chronal army had ever seen, but in the First Division under Colonel Moses Forrestor, his skills and ability were undoubted. Travelling to the time of Ivanhoe, the perfect soldier and the rough discipline case made the perfect team while trying to thwart a rogue member of the Observer Corps from changing history by disposing of King Richard the Lionhearted and his brother Prince John.
While in the past, Lucus and Finn crossed paths with a knight who plays a significant role in later episodes. This knight is in reality a woman (Andre De La Croix)surviving these harsh times by posing as a man ... and she is as good as any man alive, then or now. We'll see more of her later after she encounters a member of the Temporal underground, deserter Reece Hunter who takes Andre into the future for another encounter with ... The Time Commandoes.I'm not spoiling any more. Go read the book. You'll enjoy it.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
First in the "Time Wars" series, 3 Jun 2007
This is the first in Simon Hawke's 12 "Time Wars" novels about a crack team of time travelling agents.
It kicks off a humorous and well written series about a group of operatives who travel through time to prevent other time travellers from causing damage to history.
Sometimes, as in this book, their opponents are rogue individuals or groups of terrorists who are trying to subert the past for their own purposes: sometimes they come up against operatives from rival alternative futures who are trying to defend their own versions of history.
All 12 books in this series pay humorous homage to a great work of literature, to a set of historical events, or both. Most of these books go back to the time and events of a classic novel, in this case, obviously, "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, and revisit the events of that novel, usually with a humorous slant.
The books are best read in the correct sequence, as follows (I have put the name of the literary work and/or historical events associated with each book in brackets afterwards)
1) The Ivanhoe Gambit (Ivanhoe)
2) The Timekeeper Conspiracy (The Three Musketeers)
3) The Pimpernel Plot (French Revolution & terror/Scarlet Pimpernel)
4) The Zenda Vendetta (The Prisoner of Zenda)
5) The Nautilus Sanction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
6) The Kyber Connection (works of Rudyard Kipling/early life of Churchill)
7) The Argonaut Affair (Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece)
8) The Dracula Caper (Sherlock Homes meets Bram Stoker's Count Dracula)
9) The Lilliput Legion (Gulliver's travels)
10) The Hellfire Rebellion (American War of Independence/Hellfire Club)
11) The Cleopatra Crisis (Caesar and Cleopatra)
12) The Six-gun solution (Gunfight at the OK Corral)
Not terribly serious but very good fun: I can recommend this series, and if you want to read it, start with this one.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprised as hell, 5 Jun 1999
By A Customer
A friend recomended another of Simon's books, I was thuroughly impressed. Ivanhoe didn't look like anything I would like at all, but was looking for more of his stuff and most is out of print. He is nothing less than a master at his craft, a real professional. In plot and style I would never go for this, but he just does it so damn well! This book flashs by like what should have been an early eighties T.V. show, and yet is full of jems for any fantasy fan. He has some of the best tournamental compitions (jousting, archery, etc)scenes I'v ever read. He pulls it off, though, in a way that never bogs down for a second. Can't reccomend high enough! Go look for the rest of the series, I am. (There's eight of them, yes!)
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