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TimeWars #11
The Cleopatra Crisis
Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile . . . mistress to Julius Caesar . . . lover of Marc Antony . . . and terrorist saboteur?
The Time Commandos travel to ancient Rome to unravel the mystery of a strange prophecy—one that not only tells Caesar to "Beware the idea of March," but also foretells the exact manner of his death and the names of his assassins.
The Eternal City is full of intrigue, plots, and conspiracies . . . but agents from the parallel universe have introduced a new element of treachery—a plan to prevent Caesar's murder and change the course of history. Is the seductive Queen of Egypt their unwitting pawn—or their cunning leader? To save the future, the Emperor must die . . . and the Time Commandos may have to do the job themselves!
The Time Commandos travel to ancient Rome to unravel the mystery of a strange prophecy—one that not only tells Caesar to "Beware the idea of March," but also foretells the exact manner of his death and the names of his assassins.
The Eternal City is full of intrigue, plots, and conspiracies . . . but agents from the parallel universe have introduced a new element of treachery—a plan to prevent Caesar's murder and change the course of history. Is the seductive Queen of Egypt their unwitting pawn—or their cunning leader? To save the future, the Emperor must die . . . and the Time Commandos may have to do the job themselves!
212 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Simon Hawke
90 books238 followersAlso published as J.D. Masters.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 26, 2020
On the night before crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar summons an oracle to discover what the future holds for him. To the astonishment of his aide, Lucius Septimus — the cover identity of Jonathan Travers, a time-traveling observer from the 27th century — the oracle not only warns Caesar of his assassination but names the men involved. Fearing that he has stumbled across an attempt by agents of an alternate timeline to create a temporal disruption, Travers contacts his superiors in the future. Soon the crack Time Commandos of the First Division — Lucas Priest, Finn Delaney, and Andre Cross — are sent back to ensure that events proceed as needed. But with a rogue colleague, a temporal criminal, and a group of time terrorists involved, the situation threatens to spiral out of control — taking all of history with it.
The penultimate volume of Simon Hawke’s Timewars series contains nearly every element familiar to readers of the earlier books in it. Once again the Time Commandos go charging into the past, where they socialize with the great figures of the era while resolving whatever emergency required addressing. Unlike nearly all of the previous volumes, there are no characters inserted from famous works of literature, just the major personalities of Caesar’s time. Yet while an entertaining enough read, the pacing is marred by Hawke's all-too-frequent resort to information dumps throughout the narrative. Though the amount of Hawke’s background research is impressive (even if none of it alerted him to the fact that the title of imperator in the Republican era didn't make Caesar an emperor), here it's employed far too often to pad out a thin story. Perhaps this reflects a certain boredom on Hawke's part with the series, which, if true, was unfortunate given how many rich possibilities remained untapped by the end of it.
The penultimate volume of Simon Hawke’s Timewars series contains nearly every element familiar to readers of the earlier books in it. Once again the Time Commandos go charging into the past, where they socialize with the great figures of the era while resolving whatever emergency required addressing. Unlike nearly all of the previous volumes, there are no characters inserted from famous works of literature, just the major personalities of Caesar’s time. Yet while an entertaining enough read, the pacing is marred by Hawke's all-too-frequent resort to information dumps throughout the narrative. Though the amount of Hawke’s background research is impressive (even if none of it alerted him to the fact that the title of imperator in the Republican era didn't make Caesar an emperor), here it's employed far too often to pad out a thin story. Perhaps this reflects a certain boredom on Hawke's part with the series, which, if true, was unfortunate given how many rich possibilities remained untapped by the end of it.
November 22, 2018
I had never read this "episode" in the Time Wars series, previously. I had read all of the others, when they originally came out, but this and the next had never appeared in my local bookstores, at the time and then the series just vanished, along with the publishing industry's entire midlist of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery series. Now I have one more to go and the author is at work on a long-delayed new book in the series, to be self-published. Yay!
The impetus of this adventure is an oracle meeting Gaius Julius Caesar, just prior to Caesar crossing the Rubicon and appointing himself emperor. As in the histories, this oracle warns Caesar about the Ides of March, but unlike the histories, his warning is far too specific, including the names of his would-be assassins. One of his aides being an imbedded member of the Temporal Army Observer Corps, word gets back to our heroes and the mission is, essentially, to ensure that Caesar actually dies as history records he did. (the plot of the series revolves around avoiding intentional or accidental changes to history that could cause a timestream split).
Mystery, adventure, buckling of swashes, thrills and combat! Fun, fun, fun!
If you weren't reading a book, you'd end up needing a scorecard to keep all the sides clear. Not counting the contemporary Romans and Egyptians, you have the Temporal Intelligence Agency (the good guys), the Strategic Operations Group (the bad guys) from an alternate timeline which wants to damage "our" timeline, as well as the Underground (basically a time-traveling version of the seedy side of town), and the Network (the equivalent of a temporal mafia). Yes, over the course of the series things get complicated. And that's not even counting the mysterious and nigh-superhuman Dr. Darkness (the man who is faster than light-- due to a temporal experiment that has effectively made him able to teleport through time, though at the eventual cost of his life) who's motives are completely unknown, beyond what he chooses to share.
As with the others, if you liked any of the Timewars books, you'll like this one. Especially if you have any interest in the period or the historical figures. Hawke does his research (I have to ask him about how much he had to do) and it feels like the period characters and details are (as usual) far greater than one would expect, from an "adventure story". Not to mention the head-twisting discussions about what they refer to as "Zen Physics", as it relates to everything they've learned about time travel. An interesting spin on the grandfather paradox, included.
The impetus of this adventure is an oracle meeting Gaius Julius Caesar, just prior to Caesar crossing the Rubicon and appointing himself emperor. As in the histories, this oracle warns Caesar about the Ides of March, but unlike the histories, his warning is far too specific, including the names of his would-be assassins. One of his aides being an imbedded member of the Temporal Army Observer Corps, word gets back to our heroes and the mission is, essentially, to ensure that Caesar actually dies as history records he did. (the plot of the series revolves around avoiding intentional or accidental changes to history that could cause a timestream split).
Mystery, adventure, buckling of swashes, thrills and combat! Fun, fun, fun!
If you weren't reading a book, you'd end up needing a scorecard to keep all the sides clear. Not counting the contemporary Romans and Egyptians, you have the Temporal Intelligence Agency (the good guys), the Strategic Operations Group (the bad guys) from an alternate timeline which wants to damage "our" timeline, as well as the Underground (basically a time-traveling version of the seedy side of town), and the Network (the equivalent of a temporal mafia). Yes, over the course of the series things get complicated. And that's not even counting the mysterious and nigh-superhuman Dr. Darkness (the man who is faster than light-- due to a temporal experiment that has effectively made him able to teleport through time, though at the eventual cost of his life) who's motives are completely unknown, beyond what he chooses to share.
As with the others, if you liked any of the Timewars books, you'll like this one. Especially if you have any interest in the period or the historical figures. Hawke does his research (I have to ask him about how much he had to do) and it feels like the period characters and details are (as usual) far greater than one would expect, from an "adventure story". Not to mention the head-twisting discussions about what they refer to as "Zen Physics", as it relates to everything they've learned about time travel. An interesting spin on the grandfather paradox, included.
December 29, 2017
Simon Hawke continues to find new perspectives
Eleven books into the series and Simon Hawke continues to deliver the core strengths of the Time Wars series, an adjustment team with three central figures working to insure meddling time travellers, of any origin, fail to disrupt our timestream, otherwise known as our heroes history.
With Cleopatra comes Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Roman politics, all serving as an immersive and fascinating backdrop as our team works to figure out who is who they say they are, who is where/when they belong, who are the villains of what plot and how do we, without letting personal feelings sway us, make sure Caesar is where history tells us he was on that most famous Ides of March.
In the early books of this series I fell in love with the interactions with fictional and historical figures, this book, and the Hellfire Rebellion before it, have brought history to life.
Eleven books into the series and Simon Hawke continues to deliver the core strengths of the Time Wars series, an adjustment team with three central figures working to insure meddling time travellers, of any origin, fail to disrupt our timestream, otherwise known as our heroes history.
With Cleopatra comes Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Roman politics, all serving as an immersive and fascinating backdrop as our team works to figure out who is who they say they are, who is where/when they belong, who are the villains of what plot and how do we, without letting personal feelings sway us, make sure Caesar is where history tells us he was on that most famous Ides of March.
In the early books of this series I fell in love with the interactions with fictional and historical figures, this book, and the Hellfire Rebellion before it, have brought history to life.
October 4, 2017
There are some wonderful paradoxical expositions in this I'd forgotten, and more than a bit of Hawke's take of events of 2000 years ago. Okay, creative license with Cleopatra, but it is fantasy/science fiction!
Published 27 years ago, I could be reading one short passage from today's media: "Since he became Emperor, Caesar has become more and more the autocrat. It is not in the tradition of Rome's institutions. Only what can anyone do? He has the support of the people." Change "Emperor" and "Rome" to something else, and "the people" to "a minority of the people", and...nah...unfair to Caesar...
One left in the series. Sigh.
Published 27 years ago, I could be reading one short passage from today's media: "Since he became Emperor, Caesar has become more and more the autocrat. It is not in the tradition of Rome's institutions. Only what can anyone do? He has the support of the people." Change "Emperor" and "Rome" to something else, and "the people" to "a minority of the people", and...nah...unfair to Caesar...
One left in the series. Sigh.
August 26, 2020
This was not one of the better books of the series. Too much description of Rome and its customs. I can research that on my own. Also, there was very little to do with Cleopatra. I was also totally confused by all the acronyms--SOG, TIA, plus the network, underground, etc. Gave me a headache.
July 5, 2017
A fun romp of a series just need to read the last one in the series. Sure it will be gold as well.
March 11, 2014
So here we are the penultimate book in the series and the point where I lost faith in it the first time I read it. Now you must realise it was nothing to do with the author, the writing or even the storyline - no it was to do with the publish. There was a massive printing error in the book where a huge section had been repeated and then another shortly after had been left out where a large part of the storyline had simply vanished - I was distraught so much so I wrote to the publishers and asked if there was a way to get a replacement -(since this book was only published in the states and there was no way of getting a copy at the time) but I didnt even get acknowledged that there as a problem let alone a suggested solution - and so I gave up on the story knowing that I could not read through "guessing" what had happened.
Now years later I have a replacement and the story can now conclude - the arc that has been building both covertly and in some cases very overtly is now racing towards its conclusion - how to comment without giving the game away - well lets say that the true time wars,the one between the two realities is now taking a more desperate turn and the stakes can never be higher.
Now years later I have a replacement and the story can now conclude - the arc that has been building both covertly and in some cases very overtly is now racing towards its conclusion - how to comment without giving the game away - well lets say that the true time wars,the one between the two realities is now taking a more desperate turn and the stakes can never be higher.
January 1, 2014
One of the better entries in this series.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews