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Northland #2
Bronze Summer
Centuries have passed. The wall that Ana's people built has long outlasted her and history has been changed. The British Isles are still one with the European mainland and Doggerland has become a vibrant and rich land. So rich that it has drawn the attention of the Greeks. An invasion is mounted and soon Greek Biremes are grinding ashore on a coastline we never knew and the world will be changed for ever. Stephen Baxter's new series catapults forward from pre-history into the ancient world and charts a new and wonderful story for our world. This is a superb example of Baxter's belief that anything is possible for mankind - even making a new world.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published September 28, 2015
48 people are currently reading
520 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Baxter
403 books2,596 followersStephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 20, 2013
RAPE, BIG WALLS & LEMON CAKE
Stephen Baxter writes like the stereotypical engineer. His vocabulary is mostly limited to technical language, he only uses the most obvious or clichéd of expressions and the characters are so two dimensional they feel like they a written by a 13 YO boy with an emotional IQ in the single digits.
There are so many problems with this book, it's hard to find something nice to say, but after much thought I can let Good Readers know that this book has a really pretty cover. It also provides a good overview of the many factors that lead to the so called "Late Bronze Age Collapse", although at over 300 pages long, one can find exactly the same list of factors in under three paragraphs on Wikipedia (where Baxter obviously did most of his primary research). Ahhh the internet. Such a wonderful tool for the budding Historical Fiction writer! Maybe that's why Baxter has to provide us with such pompous Afterwards mentioning all the books he hasn't read.
Bronze Summer is an odd mash-up of Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction and Fantasy. The Best bits are the Historical fiction. The plot and characters are designed from the top down to present a slide show of all the current theories about why those cultures fell. We've got volcanoes, and a scene that shows how societies were too top heavy, and another conversation which demonstrates that stone and iron tools are being used as well....There are lots of people in this book but no characters, they are all ciphers designed to voice the history lesson. (more on Characters later).
Then we've got Baxter's Speculative Alternative Fantasy stuff. This is less well reasoned because Baxter thought of it. Flick through some of the other Good Reads Reviews... you'll see most people don't buy most of these leaps of fancy. Those potatoes worked out to be a real life saver for the Irish didn't they.
I'll buy "THE WALL" from a semiotic point of view... although George Martin, Hadrian, and the Chinese got there first. What is it about the obsession we have with BIG WALLS. I would have thought we'd be a bit more reserved in a post Berlin wall age - not to mention the current Palestinian mess. Maybe the West is trying to make up for an inferiority complex through these books. Poor Hadrian really only managed a cattle fence and you can supposedly see the Chinese one from space, or at least find it on google earth.
And now to rape. and a little more rape. And some boy rape. and a dry rape.
G.R.R Martin has coped a lot of flack for the rape in his books, but George knows how to DO rape (Sorry George RR - you seriously asked for that!). Baxter thinks rape, and shit provide the realism that the top down structure of his book lacks. He has used his role playing skills to work rape into the background story of his leading fighter and lovable rapist Troy Boy. He may have taken it up the arse, but he has a winning smile, and can still rape with the best of those Greeks and do a backflip.
GRRM uses the fear of rape and it's consequences to explore power and what it does to the victims and the wielder. Baxter describes the physical actions of a rape - He stuck it in her mouth, her anus, her cunt. This does the same thing as the rapist. It turns the body's of his characters into objects of porn. He thinks he's showing us that Late Bronze Age was a nasty place especially for woman. He succeeds in raising this book from turgid drivel to nasty torture porn.
Martin at least has the good taste to serve lemon cake after rogering.
Stephen Baxter writes like the stereotypical engineer. His vocabulary is mostly limited to technical language, he only uses the most obvious or clichéd of expressions and the characters are so two dimensional they feel like they a written by a 13 YO boy with an emotional IQ in the single digits.
There are so many problems with this book, it's hard to find something nice to say, but after much thought I can let Good Readers know that this book has a really pretty cover. It also provides a good overview of the many factors that lead to the so called "Late Bronze Age Collapse", although at over 300 pages long, one can find exactly the same list of factors in under three paragraphs on Wikipedia (where Baxter obviously did most of his primary research). Ahhh the internet. Such a wonderful tool for the budding Historical Fiction writer! Maybe that's why Baxter has to provide us with such pompous Afterwards mentioning all the books he hasn't read.
Bronze Summer is an odd mash-up of Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction and Fantasy. The Best bits are the Historical fiction. The plot and characters are designed from the top down to present a slide show of all the current theories about why those cultures fell. We've got volcanoes, and a scene that shows how societies were too top heavy, and another conversation which demonstrates that stone and iron tools are being used as well....There are lots of people in this book but no characters, they are all ciphers designed to voice the history lesson. (more on Characters later).
Then we've got Baxter's Speculative Alternative Fantasy stuff. This is less well reasoned because Baxter thought of it. Flick through some of the other Good Reads Reviews... you'll see most people don't buy most of these leaps of fancy. Those potatoes worked out to be a real life saver for the Irish didn't they.
I'll buy "THE WALL" from a semiotic point of view... although George Martin, Hadrian, and the Chinese got there first. What is it about the obsession we have with BIG WALLS. I would have thought we'd be a bit more reserved in a post Berlin wall age - not to mention the current Palestinian mess. Maybe the West is trying to make up for an inferiority complex through these books. Poor Hadrian really only managed a cattle fence and you can supposedly see the Chinese one from space, or at least find it on google earth.
And now to rape. and a little more rape. And some boy rape. and a dry rape.
G.R.R Martin has coped a lot of flack for the rape in his books, but George knows how to DO rape (Sorry George RR - you seriously asked for that!). Baxter thinks rape, and shit provide the realism that the top down structure of his book lacks. He has used his role playing skills to work rape into the background story of his leading fighter and lovable rapist Troy Boy. He may have taken it up the arse, but he has a winning smile, and can still rape with the best of those Greeks and do a backflip.
GRRM uses the fear of rape and it's consequences to explore power and what it does to the victims and the wielder. Baxter describes the physical actions of a rape - He stuck it in her mouth, her anus, her cunt. This does the same thing as the rapist. It turns the body's of his characters into objects of porn. He thinks he's showing us that Late Bronze Age was a nasty place especially for woman. He succeeds in raising this book from turgid drivel to nasty torture porn.
Martin at least has the good taste to serve lemon cake after rogering.
May 16, 2016
Baxter's characters are still pretty weak, and I had a hard time keeping track of what if anything distinguished them from each other. The first half of the book was a slog, with the second half being marginally better when it came to the Trojan conquest of Northland. Baxter has a penchant for writing about piss, shit, and rape, and it becomes tiresome. I won't be reading the next volume.
March 27, 2016
The second book in the Northland trilogy, Stephen Baxter faster forwards the reader to 1150 BC, where he continues the trials and travails of the Northland communities and how they have meshed with the rest of a parallel Bronze Age Earth.
The book focuses around the ancient culture and power base the Northland has become, and the Hatti Empire at it's height. As with all of the Northland books, the story is set against the backdrop of a natural, world spanning disaster which, in this case, is the massive eruption of an Iceland Volcano.
The resulting calamity spells seasonal shifts for the northern hemisphere over the next few years, producing droughts and famine across half of the globe. The resulting hardships produce a bandit army of the remnants of several societies caught in these hard times, which ultimately threaten Northland and the civilized world.
Stephen Baxter does a good job of bringing together historical fact and historical fiction couched in the age old question, "what if?". While there are many holes you can poke in the accuracy of Bronze Summer, both from a socio-economic point of view as well as a technical one, it is just plausible enough to suspend disbelief (at least for me) and do that thing that all good books should do ... make the reader think of it after the initial reading.
Looking forward to the next one.
The book focuses around the ancient culture and power base the Northland has become, and the Hatti Empire at it's height. As with all of the Northland books, the story is set against the backdrop of a natural, world spanning disaster which, in this case, is the massive eruption of an Iceland Volcano.
The resulting calamity spells seasonal shifts for the northern hemisphere over the next few years, producing droughts and famine across half of the globe. The resulting hardships produce a bandit army of the remnants of several societies caught in these hard times, which ultimately threaten Northland and the civilized world.
Stephen Baxter does a good job of bringing together historical fact and historical fiction couched in the age old question, "what if?". While there are many holes you can poke in the accuracy of Bronze Summer, both from a socio-economic point of view as well as a technical one, it is just plausible enough to suspend disbelief (at least for me) and do that thing that all good books should do ... make the reader think of it after the initial reading.
Looking forward to the next one.
Read
January 1, 2020Author Stephen Baxter has a thesis to argue: Climate change has been a driver of historical events since ancient times. We tend to leave this our when we study history. We tell the stories of what kings conquered what countries, considering their motivations of pride, greed, revenge, but rarely considering that a change in the growing season may have diminished food production, and made populations unstable.
In this book there has been a worldwide drought for several years, causing starvation and the fall of empires. Then a volcanic eruption causes two to three years of freezing cold summers, further stressing the fragile world order. Masses of people with nothing to lose are willing to migrate to a new land, and to fight.
Stephen Baxter has another thesis to argue: Farming sucks. I am 100% on board with the first thesis, but conflicted about the second one. Historically there is truth to what he says. Skeletons of people who lived after the birth of agriculture are shorter in stature, and marked by more diseases than people of hunter-gatherer societies.
That is exactly how Baxter depicts farmers in this book: they are short, exhausted, and sick. Covered with dust, they plod away at their tasks with demoralized eyes. The societies supported by agriculture are warlike, oppressive, dependent on slavery, and ruled by rich elites.
By contrast, the people of Northland, despite having literacy and an organized culture that supports public works such as the maintainence of the wall, and the digging of canals, live by hunting, fishing, and foraging. They live in small communities, not large cities, and are depicted as tall and healthy.
Well, good for them. But was farming really so awful? Maybe a steady diet of barley porridge was unhealthy, but milk, peas, carrots, and apples are wonderfully healthy foods. I wonder at Baxter’s apparent hostility toward farming, considering that the genius of this series of books is imagining how things might be if history had happened differently. How might it be if the people who lived in Northland (real-life Doggerland) had protected themselves from rising sea levels by building a wall? How might it be if trade between Europe and the Americas had begun early enough to allow the American peoples to develop immunity to smallpox and other diseases, and for potatoes and maize to reach Europe earlier? So why not ask: How might it be if agriculture had developed without an accompanying culture of oppression and disease? It could have happened.
But the story of Bronze Summer is what it is. And the story is that the people of Northland have continued building their great Wall, adding to it for generations until it stretches from what is today England to what is today France. The wall is hugely thick, with stairs up and down it, and a walkway on top, and hidden rooms right inside the wall. Windmills keep the water pumped out. Roads and canals are maintained by volunteer work groups, as a tradition.
The Annid of Annids, the head of Northland society, has just been killed. Her bronze armor was pierced by an iron arrow. Iron is harder than bronze, but the people of Northland don’t know how to make it. Only the Hatti people of Anatolia (in real life the Hittites) know how to make it. The dead Annid’s daughter Milaqa (and is that supposed to be pronounced as if it is Milaka, or Milaqua? What am I supposed to make of the Q without the U?) doesn’t know what career to choose. It is recommended that she study languages, become an interpreter, and travel the world to find out who killed her mother.
Meanwhile the Hatti empire has had a coup, and the Hatti empress Kilushepa has been taken into slavery. Troy has also fallen. When we read the Iliad, we imagine that Troy was completely obliterated, and that’s that. But the city remains, although burnt out and full of rubble, with a handful of hardscrabble ruffians making a living in a Mad Max kind of dystopia. One of these is Qirim (again with the solo Q). He buys Kilushepa, who announces to Qirim that she is a queen. She becomes Qirim’s lover, and begins plotting to get her kingdom back, with his help.
And everyone ends up in Northland, and they put an expedition together to travel back to the Hatti capital of Hattusa. Everyone is going to get something they want. The Northlanders are going to learn the secret of making Hatti iron. This is going to allow them to protect themselves against the hordes of starving continentals they believe are coming to invade Northland.
The Hattis are going to get access to seed potatoes to support their starving populations. They have been buying potato mash from the Northlanders, which the Northlanders don’t grow themselves, but buy from the Americas. The Northlanders have been willing to sell the foodstuffs, but have not wanted to give away the seeds before now, because then they would lose their edge in trade. (This seemed to me un-Northlander-like, with their emphasis on a free and fair society, but it forwards the plot).
Kilushepa will get her throne back, and Qirim assumes he will get power at her side. Of course there are complications, and betrayals, and in the end, war. There are numerous acts of brutality that are described in more detail than I thought necessary. Or perhaps were not necessary at all. I understand that Baxter wants to show us that traumatic experiences warp a person's psyche, and that societal breakdown enables cruel men to practice their cruelty freely. But how hard did he have to work to convince us of that? A few well-placed details would have done it.
Things are complicated. As an example, here are the names of some of the people who play roles in the story: Milaqa, Kuma, Teel, Qirim, Praxo, Hadhe, Kilushepa, Voro, Medoc, Tibo, Deri, Nago, Caxa, Xivu, Riban, Noli, Bren, Raka, Vala, Mi, Liff, Kurunta, the Spider, Hunda, Muwa, Zidanza, Urhi, Erishum. It really isn’t that hard to follow, but yes, it’s a lot of characters.
If you want an action story with some twists and turns, you got that, and if you want a novel that gives you something to think about, you got that, too. With a warning about the acts of brutality.
In this book there has been a worldwide drought for several years, causing starvation and the fall of empires. Then a volcanic eruption causes two to three years of freezing cold summers, further stressing the fragile world order. Masses of people with nothing to lose are willing to migrate to a new land, and to fight.
Stephen Baxter has another thesis to argue: Farming sucks. I am 100% on board with the first thesis, but conflicted about the second one. Historically there is truth to what he says. Skeletons of people who lived after the birth of agriculture are shorter in stature, and marked by more diseases than people of hunter-gatherer societies.
That is exactly how Baxter depicts farmers in this book: they are short, exhausted, and sick. Covered with dust, they plod away at their tasks with demoralized eyes. The societies supported by agriculture are warlike, oppressive, dependent on slavery, and ruled by rich elites.
By contrast, the people of Northland, despite having literacy and an organized culture that supports public works such as the maintainence of the wall, and the digging of canals, live by hunting, fishing, and foraging. They live in small communities, not large cities, and are depicted as tall and healthy.
Well, good for them. But was farming really so awful? Maybe a steady diet of barley porridge was unhealthy, but milk, peas, carrots, and apples are wonderfully healthy foods. I wonder at Baxter’s apparent hostility toward farming, considering that the genius of this series of books is imagining how things might be if history had happened differently. How might it be if the people who lived in Northland (real-life Doggerland) had protected themselves from rising sea levels by building a wall? How might it be if trade between Europe and the Americas had begun early enough to allow the American peoples to develop immunity to smallpox and other diseases, and for potatoes and maize to reach Europe earlier? So why not ask: How might it be if agriculture had developed without an accompanying culture of oppression and disease? It could have happened.
But the story of Bronze Summer is what it is. And the story is that the people of Northland have continued building their great Wall, adding to it for generations until it stretches from what is today England to what is today France. The wall is hugely thick, with stairs up and down it, and a walkway on top, and hidden rooms right inside the wall. Windmills keep the water pumped out. Roads and canals are maintained by volunteer work groups, as a tradition.
The Annid of Annids, the head of Northland society, has just been killed. Her bronze armor was pierced by an iron arrow. Iron is harder than bronze, but the people of Northland don’t know how to make it. Only the Hatti people of Anatolia (in real life the Hittites) know how to make it. The dead Annid’s daughter Milaqa (and is that supposed to be pronounced as if it is Milaka, or Milaqua? What am I supposed to make of the Q without the U?) doesn’t know what career to choose. It is recommended that she study languages, become an interpreter, and travel the world to find out who killed her mother.
Meanwhile the Hatti empire has had a coup, and the Hatti empress Kilushepa has been taken into slavery. Troy has also fallen. When we read the Iliad, we imagine that Troy was completely obliterated, and that’s that. But the city remains, although burnt out and full of rubble, with a handful of hardscrabble ruffians making a living in a Mad Max kind of dystopia. One of these is Qirim (again with the solo Q). He buys Kilushepa, who announces to Qirim that she is a queen. She becomes Qirim’s lover, and begins plotting to get her kingdom back, with his help.
And everyone ends up in Northland, and they put an expedition together to travel back to the Hatti capital of Hattusa. Everyone is going to get something they want. The Northlanders are going to learn the secret of making Hatti iron. This is going to allow them to protect themselves against the hordes of starving continentals they believe are coming to invade Northland.
The Hattis are going to get access to seed potatoes to support their starving populations. They have been buying potato mash from the Northlanders, which the Northlanders don’t grow themselves, but buy from the Americas. The Northlanders have been willing to sell the foodstuffs, but have not wanted to give away the seeds before now, because then they would lose their edge in trade. (This seemed to me un-Northlander-like, with their emphasis on a free and fair society, but it forwards the plot).
Kilushepa will get her throne back, and Qirim assumes he will get power at her side. Of course there are complications, and betrayals, and in the end, war. There are numerous acts of brutality that are described in more detail than I thought necessary. Or perhaps were not necessary at all. I understand that Baxter wants to show us that traumatic experiences warp a person's psyche, and that societal breakdown enables cruel men to practice their cruelty freely. But how hard did he have to work to convince us of that? A few well-placed details would have done it.
Things are complicated. As an example, here are the names of some of the people who play roles in the story: Milaqa, Kuma, Teel, Qirim, Praxo, Hadhe, Kilushepa, Voro, Medoc, Tibo, Deri, Nago, Caxa, Xivu, Riban, Noli, Bren, Raka, Vala, Mi, Liff, Kurunta, the Spider, Hunda, Muwa, Zidanza, Urhi, Erishum. It really isn’t that hard to follow, but yes, it’s a lot of characters.
If you want an action story with some twists and turns, you got that, and if you want a novel that gives you something to think about, you got that, too. With a warning about the acts of brutality.
August 21, 2014
I found the premise very interesting but I was puzzled that a giant sea wall had to be built on the north side of Doggerland but not the south. I was sad to find an immense amount of brutality liberally spread through the book, with little depth of characterisation. The ideas were good, some I was not convinced by, but a lot of research into prehistory of Eurasia had been done and Baxter saw that many changes would have occurred. However I would have liked to see some effort at portraying a sense of humour, entertainment and genuine mirth as everyone just seemed all too grim even in good times.
February 7, 2013
There was too much graphic sexual violence in this book for me to enjoy the plot.
The characters were slightly one dimensional, so there wasn't much detraction from the violence.
This wasn't what I had anticipated, in contrast to other fictional novels that contain excessive graphic violence.
However, in all fairness it is set during an intense period of strife and war.
I am looking forward to finishing the Northland Trilogy.
January 12, 2013
A solid follow-up novel. I thought it was mostly good, except for a couple of points.
In the first novel, I thought it was a sort of alternate history of the Earth, but in this one a map at the front of the book clearly shows an early landmass of Europe and Eastern Asia.
Secondly, I thought the lead character, Milaqa, was a bit frosty and hard to love as a main character. I was more enthralled with the tale of the book and peoples than of Milaqa in particular.
In the first novel, I thought it was a sort of alternate history of the Earth, but in this one a map at the front of the book clearly shows an early landmass of Europe and Eastern Asia.
Secondly, I thought the lead character, Milaqa, was a bit frosty and hard to love as a main character. I was more enthralled with the tale of the book and peoples than of Milaqa in particular.
September 18, 2013
What an absolute chore this is turning out to be! There are good passages and exciting bits where I can read pages at a time but other sections which rely on shock value and coarse vulgarity that is frankly unnecessary, especially when you have read it umpteen times already. There is still much to recommend it but whether or not I can bring myself to try the third, remains to be seen... UPDATE: Finished, phew and no, will not be borrowing the third...
August 2, 2013
I read this quite soon after reading 'The Long Earth' and was expecting something with a little more brightness and humour distributed through it.
Unfortunately, although parts were very well-written, I found this depressing, dark and uninspiring. I suspect it would have helped to have read the first book in the series, but I'm not sure.
I found it hard to actually like any of the characters, and therefore was not as invested in the story as I'd have liked to have been.
Unfortunately, although parts were very well-written, I found this depressing, dark and uninspiring. I suspect it would have helped to have read the first book in the series, but I'm not sure.
I found it hard to actually like any of the characters, and therefore was not as invested in the story as I'd have liked to have been.
September 9, 2014
I had read and enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, Stone Spring, some time ago. I was surprised by all of the gore and violence (particularly sexual violence)in the second book. First book was not that way. Perhaps the author was trying to show how terrible things can get when civilizations fall apart?
January 1, 2013
interesting alt history with bronze age civilization, including contact with North America and water works engineering. Ultimately very rapey, like as bad as George RR Martin. Will appeal to fans of GoT.
November 17, 2013
The first was good. Didn't require too great a suspension of disbelief and had interesting dynamics. To jump millenia and quantum levels of achievement without accompanying changes in the society was a bit much. As a fantasy OK. As alternative history unsatisfying
January 27, 2014
It is an okay read. Characters somewhat two dimensional. I read this after reading Iron Winter and I don't think I'll search out the first book of the series.
June 2, 2019
A Volcano erupts and the world trembles and summers flee and a seemingly eternal almost winter follows . Following the Northland world of the Stone age this moves the story on to the Bronze age.
Populations move across the known world in search of food and Northland clashes with the world of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. A reckoning beckons.
One thing I would say is that the proof readers need to be spoken to, I noticed far to many errors.
Populations move across the known world in search of food and Northland clashes with the world of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. A reckoning beckons.
One thing I would say is that the proof readers need to be spoken to, I noticed far to many errors.
September 3, 2022
Follow-on middle book of a trilogy about prior times--more realistic than fanciful, portraying the hardships of pre-historic peoples and the struggles to advance civilization. Makes you think about the fragility of things, that is for sure.
December 6, 2024
First half was great, but the second half was just plain awful with too-long battle scenes and really horrible descriptions of sexual assault and the like. I'd really started to like the antagonist, but I lost all sympathy for him at that point.
January 31, 2020
A very good follow up to the first book in the trilogy. Once again it is very imaginative.
January 16, 2021
Meh. Like vanilla ice cream. Not the good stuff, just the Wal-Mart brand.
did-not-finish-or-start
January 31, 2021DNF
August 29, 2024
Historical factions and climate change; interesting premise.
Read
October 26, 2025Why you might like it: Macro-systems across altered timelines. Rubric match: not yet scored. Uses your engineering/rigor/first-contact/world-building rubric. Tags: alt-history, ideas
May 4, 2017
This book was not as good a read as the 1st installment, which is the reason why I gave it only 3 stars. This may have been due to the fact that there was not as much geological things happening in this book and, instead, it focuses more on the people contained within this world. This makes the plot move a lot slower so it was really hard to get into and stay into the story. However, this was not the only thing that made me rate this book lower and enjoy it less. The thing that got to me the most about this book was the obvious editing mistakes contained within. Baxter repeatedly calls characters by the wrong names and gets them confused, going so far as to call them names of characters from the 1st books, which was supposed to be about this books' ancestors. Also, characters are said to be in one place in one part, but end up in a different place with no explanation of how they got there at a different part, sometimes in the span of just a few chapters. There were also some plot mistakes, but the fact is it can be stated that the quality of the writing decreased in this book, even though it is a matter of debate about whether that is the fault of the editor or of Baxter himself.
Although, this book had many aspects that got on my nerves, I did enjoy the narrative when I was able to get into it. I appreciated the research that Baxter obviously put into this book because this made his novel much more immersive and believable, especially as he went so far as to include examples such as showcasing how something as simple as iron production or the trade of seed stock can change the world. Although, the geological disaster did not feature in this book as prominently as in the 1st, I still did enjoy when it took a front seat and contributed to the narrative. Finally, I reveled in our characters' interactions because there were some great turns of phrase and plot movement contained within those interactions and conversions.
All in all, I see what Baxter was trying to accomplish with this novel, even if it gets kind of lost in the editing mistakes. This book is a solid 3-star and I can't wait to read the final installment in this series.
Although, this book had many aspects that got on my nerves, I did enjoy the narrative when I was able to get into it. I appreciated the research that Baxter obviously put into this book because this made his novel much more immersive and believable, especially as he went so far as to include examples such as showcasing how something as simple as iron production or the trade of seed stock can change the world. Although, the geological disaster did not feature in this book as prominently as in the 1st, I still did enjoy when it took a front seat and contributed to the narrative. Finally, I reveled in our characters' interactions because there were some great turns of phrase and plot movement contained within those interactions and conversions.
All in all, I see what Baxter was trying to accomplish with this novel, even if it gets kind of lost in the editing mistakes. This book is a solid 3-star and I can't wait to read the final installment in this series.
January 25, 2016
Im 2. Teil von Baxters monumentaler "Nordland-Trilogie" ist es endgültig zum Bruch mit unserer Zeitlinie gekommen und die Trilogie wurde zu einer "Alternate-History". Waren im 1. Teil der Trilogie, die zum Ende der Eiszeit angesiedelt war, auch schon einige Dinge, wie der Dammbau zur Trockenlegung Nordlands (Im Dreieck Brittannien, Frankreich und Dänemark) ziemlich spekulativ, man konnte sie aber noch im historischen Kontex sehen, gerade weil auch die Archäologie einige Bauwerke im Grund der Nordsee gefunden hat. Nun sind ca. 8000 Jahre vergangen, Nordland wurde zur beherrschenden europäischen Kultur, man besiedelt Island (Kirikes Land) und treibt Handel mit Amerika, man führt fremde Erzeugnisse wie die Kartoffel ein und treibt auch Handel mit den Kulturen des Mittelmeers (Ägypten und dem Hethiterreich). Bei Baxter war der Grund des dunklen Zeitalters der Antike (ca.1200 v.Chr.) das Ausbrechen eines Vulkans auf Island, der Jahre ohne Sommer hinterlies und große Hungersnöte hervorbrachte, in unserer Zeitlinie war es die Auswirkungen des trojanischen Krieges, der zum Untergang der mykenischen, der hethitischen Kultur und dem Ende des Alten Reiches der Ägypter führte, in der Bibel wurde diese Zeit als die Invasion der Seevölker beschrieben. Baxter beschreibt den Krieg, den ein trojanisch, griechisches und hethitisches Söldnerheer gegen Nordland führt und in dem die Technik der Eisenherstellung und biologische Kriegsführung eine große Rolle spielt. Jedoch ist es auch die Geschichte eines fiktiven Landes über die Jahrtausende, ein großes Epos der Alternate History, einem Sub-Genre der SF...
August 16, 2013
I liked book 1 in the series. Not the best book I've ever read, but it had a clear plot and a problem it was trying to solve.
In book 2, there are some subplots. And Milaqa is a good character. Unfortunately, that is the only part of the story that drew me in. Other subplots had unnecessary rape and violence. And it wasn't just mentioned once for backstory. It was mentioned over and over in different ways. And i wasn't able to discern why it needed to be part of the backstory at all in the first 150 pages. At which point I stopped reading.
The good thing is that the books don't really build on each other. Difference characters and different points in time. Which means I can try out book 3 and see if it is better./
In book 2, there are some subplots. And Milaqa is a good character. Unfortunately, that is the only part of the story that drew me in. Other subplots had unnecessary rape and violence. And it wasn't just mentioned once for backstory. It was mentioned over and over in different ways. And i wasn't able to discern why it needed to be part of the backstory at all in the first 150 pages. At which point I stopped reading.
The good thing is that the books don't really build on each other. Difference characters and different points in time. Which means I can try out book 3 and see if it is better./
March 4, 2016
There are some uncanny resemblances between this and another series I have recently read the latest book in, George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' - the exiled queen returning to reclaim her throne, the epochal battle at the Wall... which leads me to feel the must be some degree of influence occurring! But no matter... Martin and Baxter are both great writers, and if the ideas of one inspire the other, then they are both talented enough to do great and original things with said ideas - as demonstrated here!
(having since started the 3rd Northland book, Iron Winter, my theory of influence is further evidenced - I give you the strap line on the inner sleeve: "The ice is coming" - familiar with the Stark words?)
(having since started the 3rd Northland book, Iron Winter, my theory of influence is further evidenced - I give you the strap line on the inner sleeve: "The ice is coming" - familiar with the Stark words?)
September 2, 2016
Finally over!
Was genau wollte Stephen Baxter eigentlich mit diesem Buch erreichen? Ich fand die Idee hinter der ganzen Nordlandgeschichte faszinierend, aber der Autor hat es nicht geschafft interessante Charaktere, welche die Story vorantreiben, einzubringen. Fast ausnahmslos bleiben die Figuren schemenhaft, unsympathisch und sobald sie ihren Zweck in der Geschichte erfüllt haben, verschwinden sie wieder. Ein Setting, das durchaus Potenzial hat (fand ich auch im 1. Teil), aber nicht genügend genützt wird.
Ich denke nicht, dass ich in Zukunft wieder zu einem Buch von diesem Autor greifen werde. Schade!
Was genau wollte Stephen Baxter eigentlich mit diesem Buch erreichen? Ich fand die Idee hinter der ganzen Nordlandgeschichte faszinierend, aber der Autor hat es nicht geschafft interessante Charaktere, welche die Story vorantreiben, einzubringen. Fast ausnahmslos bleiben die Figuren schemenhaft, unsympathisch und sobald sie ihren Zweck in der Geschichte erfüllt haben, verschwinden sie wieder. Ein Setting, das durchaus Potenzial hat (fand ich auch im 1. Teil), aber nicht genügend genützt wird.
Ich denke nicht, dass ich in Zukunft wieder zu einem Buch von diesem Autor greifen werde. Schade!
January 26, 2025
*It's recommended to read the first book in the series: Stone Spring*
This fictional look at an alternate history of the British Isles takes place thousands of years after the building of the great wall. A miles long linear city has now sprung up on the wall itself but a deadly drought is causing people to panic. The wall, a wonder of the world, has held Bronze age empires at bay but the Greeks are growing in interest and they're at the door.
There's a lot of focus on ecology and can seem somewhat slow and formulaic at points.
This fictional look at an alternate history of the British Isles takes place thousands of years after the building of the great wall. A miles long linear city has now sprung up on the wall itself but a deadly drought is causing people to panic. The wall, a wonder of the world, has held Bronze age empires at bay but the Greeks are growing in interest and they're at the door.
There's a lot of focus on ecology and can seem somewhat slow and formulaic at points.
June 25, 2013
I know...I said I wouldn't pick up #2 of this series but it was just sitting there in the "recent additions" section of the library. However.... I won't pick up #3. "Alternate History" in this case means..."history but I get to fudge the timelines and not worry about anachronisms" and I do't know enough about the time period to know what's accurate and what's not.
February 1, 2013
Incredibly innovative-yet believable-plot. Very fast paced action.
Still, I didn't feel that I really connected with the main characters or cared what happened to them. Also, a lot of the sex/violence felt gratuitous.
Still, I didn't feel that I really connected with the main characters or cared what happened to them. Also, a lot of the sex/violence felt gratuitous.
February 21, 2013
This is a rather tedious historical slog covering lots of territory and fighting different enemies. It's too diffuse without any real character development to keep the reader's interest.
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