Eos, 1995, $7.99, ISBN 0-06-105648-0, paperback, 520 pages

I was in the mood for a good time-travel book, so this seemed a good idea. For the first third of it, I thought this an awful idea. The next third was passable, and the final third well done.

The Time Ships takes off where H.G.Wells' Time Machine, left off. The main character arrives back at this home, and then rushes like a chicken with his head cut off to go rescue the love of his life 812,000+ years in the future. I should point out that if you have a time machine, you don't have to rush!

Let me save you a couple hundred pages--he jumps forward some 600,000+ years and stops because this future is not what had happened the last time he passed through this time period. He's captured by Morlocks again, only they're advanced, civilized, patient, and polite--the opposite of Wells' Morlocks. He gets a tour of the giant spaceship that encircles the sun (300 million Earth surfaces' worth) and contrives to escape with an incredibly stubborn Morlock hopping onto his time machine at the last second, so to speak. Together, they search through time to discover why and how it's different. There, I saved you a couple hours of repeating, "get on with it!"

The rest becomes an ever-engrossing account of time, sequencing, and dimensional theory. There's a few other subplots, including an extended WWI, battling time travel teams, a nuke delivered by a Messerschmitt 109 in 40 million BC, and other such novelties. If you're going to screw with history, what a way to do so.

Baxter has a math background, and an unspecified PhD, so there's grounding in the imagination. This book won a couple Science Fiction awards. I can see why. You should read why.

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