The Fourth Rome

ARC Riders #2

by David Drake, Janet E. Morris

Unchecked after the collapse of the USSR, a Soviet scientific team conducts experiments in time travel, hoping to rewrite history and thus cultivate a Russian superpower.

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History

311 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.

Reviews

[William Bentrim]

ARC Riders by David Drake and Janet Morris
This is a time travel police book. They don’t refer to themselves as police but the guidelines seem to be that Arc Riders are tasked with keeping anything in the past from changing or threatening their existence.
The characters are not memorable. The book jumps from 9 AD to 1992 and to sometime in the future which is the home of the Arc Riders. The jumping back and forth was confusing. The plot seemed thin and incomplete.
This is part of a series and perhaps if I had read more of the books I might feel differently.
I didn’t care for the book but I finished it so I didn’t hate it.

[Sam]

I wish there were more books in this series. Interesting ARC tech, relatable characters and an entertaining time travel story.

[Craig]

Like the first volume in this pair of Arc Rider books, this is a fairly average run-of-the-mill time travel adventure, in the tradition of The Time Patrol and many others with a bit more of an emphasis on the military aspect. The best reason for two authors to collaborate on a novel is if one of them has a particular strength that offsets a weakness of the other, or if one has a particular expertise or knowledge that strengthens the work. So the work should be better by the two than either one could have produced alone. In this case I didn't detect any kind of strength that was added by the collaboration. I wasn't previously familiar with much of Morris's work, but I thought I'd enjoyed Drake's solo works much more. It's not a bad story, just not quite up to his usual standard.

[Jack]

Now this is more like it!
Good, clear writing. No long winded technical explanations of this or that. Good action. Lots of suspense.
This is a story I've come to expect from David Drake.
What an enjoyable read - fun.

[Nicole]

I liked certain characters and so would focus on those parts. 9 AD was more enjoyable than 1992.