What do you think?
Rate this book
Timequest #1
Rashanyn Dark
This is a thirty-six-year-old mass market paperback commonly selling for a penny plus postage and handling. The novel is currently available as a revised Kindle title, Star Rashanon. Hydrabyss Red, Hydrabyss, and Nemydia Deep (titles differ a bit) are also available in the same format.
- GenresScience Fiction
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
2 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 1, 2015
This was a very fascinating book, I could tell as I read that the author put a lot of time and research into this story. The plot was very easy to follow and you get to know some amazing characters. This was a very fast paced read and had me flipping through it's pages at light-speed lol. I loved that I could picture every detail and that it played out in my mind like a blockbuster movie. William TedFord takes you on a thrilling ride that you will never forget!! I'm A fan for life now and looking forward to reading more by this amazing author!!! 5 stars
August 22, 2025
TimeQuest Revisited begins with an interesting take on a sub-lightspeed diaspora from mankind's home solar system and its effects on human evolution. This initial concept then becomes the background for the adventures that follow tens of thousands of years after that emigration. Thanks to a little bit of plot maneuvering, we wind up following Chayn Jahil, a human of earth origin, as he makes his way through the Andromeda galaxy where homo sapiens have evolved into a variety of species.
One of the most interesting things about William Tedford's novel is his treatment of the three distinct species he writes about. All are recognizably human on a character level, but their cultural and environmental histories give each a very alien outlook on life that Chayn must learn to understand and respect.
Perhaps his most successful character accomplishment is Villimy Dy, a woman who is descended from humans, but her species adapted to thrive in a harsh environment which necessitated some drastic changes to their physical appearance. She is small, blue, and exceedingly fast. It would be easy to treat such a character as simply a weird-looking human, but instead she works as an individual whose motivations are similar to human needs, but take into account the millennia of divergent evolution that make her psychology distinct from Chayn's.
However successful sci-fi is on a character level, what makes it great is its ability to use the trappings of futurism to comment on the world as it exists now. TimeQuest is no slouch on that level. Rashanon, the star system in which most of the action takes place, is a series of massive cities orbiting uninhabitable planets whose inhabitants are in a tense political situation where the balance of power is constantly tipping between the military, the civilian government, and a powerful religious sect. It's never a direct allegory for Earth in our own time, but the political machinations are easily recognizable as the same kinds of maneuvering we encounter every day, and the moral implications explored apply equally as well to the real world.
All of this is couched in a sci-fi universe that never feels like a rehash of any other. There are recognizable elements (space station cities that produce gravity by spinning rapidly around a central hub) that frequently crop up in the genre, but also novel ideas on computing, human evolution, and interstellar travel that separate the universe of Rashanon from its fellows.
In short, TimeQuest is a fast-paced space adventure that doesn't hesitate to tackle some major issues. I look forward to following any future adventures of Chayn Jahil and Villimy Dy.
One of the most interesting things about William Tedford's novel is his treatment of the three distinct species he writes about. All are recognizably human on a character level, but their cultural and environmental histories give each a very alien outlook on life that Chayn must learn to understand and respect.
Perhaps his most successful character accomplishment is Villimy Dy, a woman who is descended from humans, but her species adapted to thrive in a harsh environment which necessitated some drastic changes to their physical appearance. She is small, blue, and exceedingly fast. It would be easy to treat such a character as simply a weird-looking human, but instead she works as an individual whose motivations are similar to human needs, but take into account the millennia of divergent evolution that make her psychology distinct from Chayn's.
However successful sci-fi is on a character level, what makes it great is its ability to use the trappings of futurism to comment on the world as it exists now. TimeQuest is no slouch on that level. Rashanon, the star system in which most of the action takes place, is a series of massive cities orbiting uninhabitable planets whose inhabitants are in a tense political situation where the balance of power is constantly tipping between the military, the civilian government, and a powerful religious sect. It's never a direct allegory for Earth in our own time, but the political machinations are easily recognizable as the same kinds of maneuvering we encounter every day, and the moral implications explored apply equally as well to the real world.
All of this is couched in a sci-fi universe that never feels like a rehash of any other. There are recognizable elements (space station cities that produce gravity by spinning rapidly around a central hub) that frequently crop up in the genre, but also novel ideas on computing, human evolution, and interstellar travel that separate the universe of Rashanon from its fellows.
In short, TimeQuest is a fast-paced space adventure that doesn't hesitate to tackle some major issues. I look forward to following any future adventures of Chayn Jahil and Villimy Dy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews