Time Spike (1)

Time Spike #1

by Eric Flint, Marilyn Kosmatka

Captain Andrew Blacklock was overseeing the change of shifts at the state of Illinois’ maximum-security prison when the world outside was suddenly ripped. They thought it was an earthquake until they found that the Mississippi river had disappeared, along with all signs of civilization. Then the sun came up—in the wrong direction. And a dinosaur came by and scratched its hide against the wall of the prison . . .

Something had thrown the prison back in time millions of years. And they were not alone. Other humans from periods centuries, even millennia apart had also been dropped into the same time. Including a band of murderous conquistadores. But the prison had its own large population of murderers. They couldn’t be turned loose, but what else could be done with them? Death walked outside the walls, human savagery was planning to break loose inside, and Stephens and the other men and women of the prison’s staff were trapped in the middle.

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Alternate History, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

688 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 6, 2008

About the author

Eric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.

Reviews

[James Tullos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book ends with a gay man getting married to a lesbian and starting an orphanage together in the Cretaceous Era.

That's the most enjoyable detail to recount.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mysterious event catapults an Illinois prison back to the age of the dinosaurs... along with scattered groups of others in the area throughout history. With no idea how they got there and no way back, the group must survive all the dangers both outside of the prison... and within.

This is part of a specific subgenre of SF... I'm not even sure if it has a name. I go back and forth between calling them Cut-and-Paste Settings and Patchwork Fiction... the idea is that some large area is taken out of its normal setting and then pasted onto another, like you were patching a pair of jeans, usually a different time but it could just as easily be another world or dimension. Sometimes multiple patches are taken from multiple places. Usually the displaced area constitutes a particular community of people, maybe a particular military group or a small town, or, in this case, a prison full of dangerous criminals. Usually the how is unimportant: the story is all about what happens next, suddenly cut off from the world they know and interacting in a new one.

This particular one is set in the same 'multiverse' as another series in the genre (and I believe more are intented), that started with 1632. They both come from the same world and are blasted into a divergent timeline in the past. For some reason, in addition to showing what happens to the prison, we have a subplot about what happens to the world left behind. Aside from providing the title and some information those in the prison don't have access to, this plotline feels completely unnecessary and could be cut (or consolidated by having somebody 'in the know' in the area of effect. Perhaps it serves the overarching plot, but it's not necessary in this book.

In fact, 'not necessary' kind of sums up the book. It's okay. You'll be mildly entertained, particularly if you like the subgenre. But it's nothing particularly special, nor does it break any new ground. It doesn't feel like it's particularly daring at all, and some of the writing is just clumsy.

For example, the romantic subplots are pretty blatant. In almost every case, within a few pages of two characters interacting for the first time, it telegraphs that they're romantically interested in each other and will probably wind up together. You could excuse that under the theory that, in a highly stressful situation, people are going to hook up quickly, except it happens in the (superfluous) present-day plot, too. And there's never really any uncertainty about who will end up with who, or even a decent love triangle (surprising, when one of the problems is that the male/female ratio is extremely out of whack). At one point a character was severely wounded and everyone said he would probably die, and I thought, "Oh, at least they're potentially changing things up by killing off one of the romantic pairs"... only to realize a few pages later that I'd gotten him confused, he wasn't the one in the romantic pairing. Which is another big problem in the book, it's not just the relationships that are undistinctive and unsurprising, most the characters are. The good guards are good. The bad guys are bad. You can tell which ones are the prisoners who'll wind up showing a good side pretty early too, from the ones who'll be the threats. And it's almost completely undaring: almost all of the prisoners who make good are given almost cartoonishly innocent backstories: one's wrongly convicted, a few others just lost their temper in one extraordinary situation but are really good guys at heart, others committed serious robberies or arson in which they were careful that nobody ever got hurt but the state threw the book at them anyway, and there's even a hitman who only ever killed other mobsters, so obviously, he's okay too.

So it's hard to recommend this one. It had an intriguing premise, but it didn't live up to it. It's the kind of book that might be worth reading in paperback on a long plane ride, so if you happen to lose the book somewhere along the way, you're not going to be put out.

[Aaron Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm such a sucker for time-travel books, especially where you get a person or group accidentally or randomly moved backwards in time and they have to deal with it. Basically I'm talking about things like 1632 or lots of similar books. This book was like that. Basically a maximum security prison from southern Illinois gets caught in some weird time-event-horizon and moved back about 150 million years. The effect reverberated and also took back people from earlier times, like the Cherokee on the trail of tears, and some conquistadors. So all these people were randomly transported, with a bit of flora and fauna back into one of the dinosaur eras and they have to try to survive.

It's so hokey in a way, but I love this kind of crap. :)

[Stacy Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quite a while back. I think if you think too hard, you won't be entertained by this book but if you just sit back and enjoy it for what it really is-an action packed book that should be read purely for entertainment purposes- and suspend your disbelief-you won't be sorry you read it. For me, it was just the idea that all these different peoples were sucked back in time...it was like the best action movie-only it was in book form. This is why I gave it four stars. Most of the time I'm just looking for a really fun read and this was it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

2018 re-read: A superb "spin off" of the 1632 universe. I really wish that there'd be sequels.

[Michael Hatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an imaginative and entertaining book ! Squeezed this one in while I was struggling with another one of Flint's novels, "The Ram Rebellion". Great concept, the moving of an entire maximum security prison back in time. Way, way, back in time. How do you deal with the entire world becoming wild and primitive, while still maintaining control over two thousand maximum security prisoners? Captain Andy Blacklock reluctantly takes charge. Mixed in are unruly prisoners, unruly guards, dinosaurs, Spanish Conquistadors wandering about, and no modern conveniences what so ever. Lots of intrigue and plenty of action are included with this book. This one is a winner. Five bright stars !!

[Andreas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This singleton Assiti Shards novel sees a maximum security prison in southern Illinois get sent back in time, dragging along with it large group of Cherokees from the 19th Century, conquistadors from the 16th century, and Mounds people from prehistoric times.

The idea of dragging a prison back in time is interesting. What do you do with the convicts? How do you keep guarding them? Unfortunately, that is pretty much the only bright point in this novel apart from the action scenes and the fact that it is an easy read and the vaguely interesting historical tidbits. Most characters are so two dimensional and cookie cutter that I had a very hard time remembering who was who. The portrayal of men and women falling in love more or less instantly was naive and plain silly, the argument being that since they had to survive, they’d better pair up.

The subplot with the “present day” scientists was completely superfluous, and seemed to be there mostly to tie in with possible sequels and bring needless exposition. Again, the instant love trope reared its ugly head here.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1555

[Robby · Rating 1 out of 5]

A wonderful premise, but an ugly, messy, poorly-written book. What the hell was the point of the modern-day "Project" plotline, which went nowhere and did nothing? How are we supposed to root for the "good guys" when they've turned into hypocritical cold-blooded murderers halfway through the book? Why does every male/female pair fall in love with each other? How are we supposed to believe the stupidity of the people running the prison when they give an openly rebellious guard the keys to the entire prison and a solo patrol route? What's with Boomer's half-assed characterization and badly-attempted written dialect? How cheap is it that the "good guys" get to have their cake and eat it too when the bad guys take over the prison and kill almost all the potentially troublesome prisoners?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoyed his 1632, you will enjoy this one. Moves back and forth between the group at the prison sent back in time and a group of scientists working in 'present day' to figure out what caused the prison to disappear (as well as the 'Grantville incident'.)
Good resolution, although like many good 'worlds', leaves me wishing for a sequel to see how they fare over the long term...

[Wolfgarrr · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not know how much of this was written by Eric flint but the writing style and the story was horrible. I do not understand Mr Flints writing at times. 1632 was a awesome series.. Until he got into the grantvill gazette junk. I honestly wanted to like this book, I rarely stop in the middle of a book and not finish it.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read, but not one of Flint's better books. Not sure why he felt the need to include current day story line about why this happened, but don't feel that it really added much to the story other than an opportunity to bash politicians.

[Debrac2014 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars! Interesting story! We see what happens in the current time as well as what occurs to those sent into the past!

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book ended up being better than I thought it would be. It is a tangent of 1632; in this book there is another 'occurrence' and a prison disappears from the face of the modern world, only to reappear sometime in the Cretaceous period. It has Spanish conquistadors as the villains; it is filled with Native Americans from different time periods, and it is interesting to read how the different groups of people learn to work together. The prisoners originally numbered over 2000 before the 'incident' but their numbers are dramatically whittled down by the end of the book. It bounces back and forth between a group of scientists in the modern world trying to figure out what happened to the prison [as well as Grantville] and the various groups trying to survive amongst the prehistoric past. Interestingly enough, there are not very many dinosaurs in the book.

This will be a short review, as very little in the book really stands out. There are some mildly disturbing descriptions of crimes committed by some of the incarcerated. We find out there are some men who are innocent of the crimes committed. It reinforces how horrible the conquistadors were, which is funny because in the history books I read as a child they were portrayed as being valiant soldiers and heroes, but as my understanding of them and their actions has increased they seem less and less heroic to me. I realize they were a product of their time and culture, but their actions merely reinforce the understanding that the Christian church was meant to serve, not to rule. As the good Lord said, He did not come to Earth to create an earthly kingdom. How much of history might have been different if those who claimed to follow Him would have followed in His footsteps and not tried to rule those around them. Not saying a person's faith should not guide their decisions; just saying a theocracy is a horrible form of government.

There seemed to be a lot of 'convenient' occurrences in the book that detracted a bit from the reading for me. But there were also some surprises, which made the book enjoyable. There was also some exceptionally stupid behavior like giving a rebellious security guard keys and unescorted access to the entire prison that made me scratch my head and wonder what the authors were thinking. So funny [and not in a humorous way] to read about smart people making obviously stupid decisions [especially when it is just to further the plot along].

The book starts out with some promise, I guess. But it seems to lose steam during the telling. I did not mind the bouncing back and forth between the 'modern' era and the time-lost travelers. What I did not care for was how abruptly it ended. It seemed like it was setting up more 'sequels' in the modern world as humanity learns how to deal with these 'incidences' where chunks of the time-space continuum are being displaced. We find out it is not just localized in the United States, but has occurred in other remote parts of the globe [making it easy to 'conceal' when it happens]. It just seemed that it the story did not really 'go' anywhere, which is what makes me think it was to set up more sequels in the universe Eric Flint created.

I will say this: I initially thought the book was going to start bashing Christianity based on some comments at the start of the book. I was happy to discover that I was wrong. I think there was a decent balance of bashing versus positive in terms of Christians and Christianity. I enjoyed the portrayal of the time-lost Cherokee. It reminded me of the 'Lost Regiment' series by William Forstchen.

Overall, a good book. It really needs a sequel of sorts to make it a better book. Otherwise, it ended too abruptly, considering the concepts and ideas begun in this book. Also, considering in the 'prologue' for 1632 reference is made to how humanity would get theirs in terms of the aliens not being more careful with the consequences of their experiments. Humans never liked being the collateral damage of inept alien races.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two pages in, I already disliked this book. I forced myself to continue because, I grudgingly admit, the premise is fascinating. With the right author, this would have been a fantastic read.

The good things first (as I am trying to be positive):
1) The premise. Modern day humans are transported back to the Cenozoic or thereabouts along with some Cherokees, some conquistadors, the Mounds civilization, and native Cenozoic flora and fauna. Nevermind HOW the transportation occurred, exactly, as the explanations provided by the author are likely to make your eyes bleed. Oh wait - positivity. Right. I remember now.

2) ... Sorry, can't think of anything.

I could write my own, similarly lengthy book on exactly everything I did not like about this reading experience; however, for brevity's sake, a short list will suffice:
1) The writing was sub-par at its finest.
2) ALL major characters fell in love at first sight, each noting what a terribly unusual time to develop feelings for someone.
3) All problems eliminated without Group A protagonists (in the past) reeeeeally having to get their hands dirty.
4) Group B protagonists (in present day) didn't have a resolution that would befit the research they conducted.

That's just the beginning of a very long list wherein I could get super nitpicky, but I will graciously spare you.

I want to end this with the understanding that there are very, VERY few things I will complain about in writing when I am irritated. This happens to be one of those things. Avoid.

[Read Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised. I hate to admit, but this is the first Eric Flint (and Marilyn Kosmatka) story I have read. It looked lonely on the bookshelf. I was not expecting much since the cover art was a mishmash of timelines all stirred up into a big pot. It looked a bit cheesy to me. This is an independent work that I don't believe is linked to the Ring of Fire series. (I really need to give The Ring of Fire a try.) There is more than one reference to the Grantville Disaster (which I also have no familiarity with), but it does not prevent you from having fun with the story. There are some loose ends and room for character expansion, which is consistent if this was the first book of another series.

On to the story, there are some interesting groups of characters tossed into this story. The interaction did not always work for me. It's good to have good and bad pitted against each other and what more natural enemies are there than prisoners and their guards? Will there be more dinosaurs? I would have also thought that de Soto's troops would play a larger role. There was plenty of room left for expansion into more books in the "series".

Have a GoodReads.

[Sean Randall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would've enjoyed this more if it had actually gone somewhere, but from the time the Spike happens and we learn there's no way of going back, it's sink or swim for certain and there's no gray area. This means the scenes set in the present with the research team are completely redundant.

As if that wasn't bad enough (nobody likes a story with a predictable ending), the sheer level of proofing needed to make this work publishable put me off:
* Glove Department rather than compartment
* Clinched teeth, rather than clenched, Crustaceous rather than cretaceous, and Adolph rather than Adolf (Hitler, you know?) all in the one paragraph!
* Pepper spay? What on earth is that?
* a "grocery story", rather than a store. Really!
* and "the identical sort of look". Grammatical nonsense!

These are just a few of the things I angrily highlighted. Sloppy editing, sloppy plot, interesting characters, just, and an idea that could've been worth reading in the hands of a decent writer. These aren't there yet

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A maximum-security prison is transported hundreds of millions of years inro the past along with Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, de Soto's rampaging army, and some pre-Mounds tribal people.

Good thing: Seeing how modern day prison guards deal with dinosaurs, de Soto, and their own prisoners was fun.

Bad thing: The romantic relationships were the most unrealistic thing in the book!

It took me a long time to finish this book, but overall I did enjoy it - good fluff. I will most likely not read any more by the author.

[Nathan Balyeat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book better than the rest of the Ring of Fire series. It is more than your typical "high-tech meets low-tech" trope, if only by combining lots of different low-techs. But what makes it better are the characters and how they interact.

Ms. Kosmatka's influence on the story is obvious and the book is better for it.

I can't claim that it's a better book than 1632 or 1633, but I liked it more.

[Globalt38 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read. Eric Flint specializes in "Alternative History" type stories and this is a take on that in which something causes parts of several different times in a certain geographical area to be brought together at the same time (creating a new timeline/universe). I like Eric as I like History (my major back when... :-) and read a lot of SciFi - so he "hits two interests with one stone". It's obvious that he puts a lot of historical research into his stories.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A time spike throws a maximum security prison back into the dinosaur age, dragging along people from various past times including Cherokee from the Trail of Tears and vicious conquistadors.
The premise is good but the book is a little patchy, switching from various stories. The weaving is loose and the plot drags a bit but I liked the book overall.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim and actually enjoyed reading it. Interesting mix of sci-fi, history, & thriller, all roled into one. The ending could have been better developed (it kind of just wraps up too smoothly needing more detail) but overall it was a good read.

[Charles Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Takes off on a real tangent from the other historical time travel series. Gives a very limited explanation of how such transfers of everything in a finite area could be transferred through time and space. Does not let that issue bog down the story line.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Ring of Fire - looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

[C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun, but not really one of the better ones of the meta-series.

[Bj Ku · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun to read. Nick and Margo's little story beyond the explanation of the phenomena was unnecessary, found it distracting near the end.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is amazing is making a prison book good enough for 2*. Passable and a bit intense for air plane reading. At least the history is well done even if the social justice is a bit unbelievable.

[Dominik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's no masterpiece, but for what it is (a pulp novel about AWESOME PRISON GUARDS fighting dinosaurs) it's pretty good.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the 1632 books. Not worth owning, read from library.

[Daniel Shellenbarger · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the past year Eric Flint and company released the Alexander Inheritance, which was a sort of sequel/spin-off of the 1632/Ring of Fire series of novels following a different group time-displaced by an alien quantum filament impacting Earth. It was not actually the first such instance, as back in the 2000's, Flint and Marilyn Kosmatka released Time Spike, which is set in the same multiverse and follows the guards and prisoners of the Alexander Correctional Institute, a maximum security prison in Illinois, after it gets hit by another Assiti Shard (as was Grantville in 1632) and sent way way back to the time of the dinosaurs. Fortunately (and unfortunately), they're not the only ones caught in the blast to the past as the shard also pulls in a group of Cherokee on the trail of tears, Hernando De Soto and his gang of cutthroats, and a number of pre-Columbian villages of the Mississippian and Cahokian Mound-Builder civilizations. Frankly, apart from the Cherokee, the setting isn't as interesting as you'd expect as dinosaurs flit in and out of the story at various points, but they're largely unimportant to the story and don't really affect the time-displaced people in any significant way; the lack of grasses in the native vegetation is far more troublesome but even this is glossed over as the book is largely about the guards efforts to forge an alliance with the Cherokee, stop De Soto's depredations, and figure out what to do with all their prisoners. There's some interesting plot material in there and the story moves along alright, but compared to the complexity of the politics in the Ring of Fire books (or even the more recent Alexander Inheritance), it's just not on the same level. A part of the book that I did find more intriguing was that there is a subplot set back in modern times. It turns out that there's a group of rogue scientists who have figured out some of what is going on and they're working subversively to prove the time displacements are happening. Unfortunately, this story doesn't really go anywhere, it gets dropped for most of the second half of the book, and is beset by far too much thinly-veiled Bush-bashing (which makes the book feel terribly dated). We get it, you don't like the guy, fine, but seriously, he was hardly the second-coming of the Spanish Inquisition. What really disappointed me about this subplot was the wasted potential for connections with the Grantville books. Many of the major characters in that series left behind family up-time and it would've been a great idea to work a couple of them in as supporting characters, tireless crusaders determined to find out the truth, etc, but no such luck. Instead a random group of scientists living in a hole are the only ones apparently who need to know what happened to Grantville. All in all, the present-day subplot intrigued me but ultimately frustrated me, and that's kind of a microcosm of the book as a whole. It had some good ideas, particularly the idea of a different sort of temporal displacement in which multiple groups are simultaneously displaced backwards, and an interesting core dynamic of guards and prisoners needing each other in the new world, but the whole was disjointed and just didn't reach the levels of fun or gripping story-telling that are the hallmarks of the base 1632 series. I am glad I read it for completionist sake (with this under my belt, 1635: the Dreeson Incident is the only 1632-related major release that I haven't read... sigh) but I'm not particularly disappointed that it never got a sequel outside of some stories in the Grantville Gazette e-zine.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read several of the original Ring of Fire books and this is more of a standalone spinoff in the series. A max security prison in southern Illinois is suddenly transported to a place where dinosaurs, conquistadors, and Cherokee on the Trail of Tears all collide. Much of the drama is the tension between the guards and prisoners. The author does a good job weaving quite a few storylines together, though I question whether the "current" timeline plot was necessary. It was interesting seeing the research going into the events, but it didn't add much to the plot. There also seemed to be a lot of forced romantic plots. If you like outside the box fantasy/alternate history, this should be right up your alley.