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The Tides of Time
First there was the end.
After weeks of running from pursuers, Gene and Stacy finally found refuge on an isolated island.
But around them the island changed - and so did they.
Each time they awoke from sleep, they lived a different life in a different time. And the farther back they went, the more they lost their anchor to their own world. When at last they were found, the people they had become no longer recognised their pursuers.
And that was the beginning.
After weeks of running from pursuers, Gene and Stacy finally found refuge on an isolated island.
But around them the island changed - and so did they.
Each time they awoke from sleep, they lived a different life in a different time. And the farther back they went, the more they lost their anchor to their own world. When at last they were found, the people they had become no longer recognised their pursuers.
And that was the beginning.
235 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 12, 1984
1 person is currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
John Brunner
572 books480 followersJohn Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 7, 2015
The Tides of Time (1984) 235 pages, by John Brunner
Tides of Time follows the lives of Gene and Stacy. There are twelve twenty page chapters. Each chapter is an episode on a tiny island in the Mediterranean, near Greece. There is a slight continuity of the main characters, but the setting keeps going further back in time. The first one is kind of present day, there is a WWII chapter, and so on. At the end of each chapter is a page or two describing a person, maybe like the moral at the end of a parable.
The last chapter kind of explains things, trying to bring the story together. Then there is Gene's explanation of the entire experience, which might make some sort of sense, but it's kind of obscure. The ending did make up for a lot of the disjointedness of going from episode to episode.
The scholars probably love this kind of book, but I like my stories a bit more coherent. It certainly wasn't bad, but within my collection, I'm sure there are hundreds that I'd appreciate more. Probably a dozen of those are by Brunner himself. My recommendation is, if it's in your collection go ahead and read it, but it's not one you need to go out and get.
Tides of Time follows the lives of Gene and Stacy. There are twelve twenty page chapters. Each chapter is an episode on a tiny island in the Mediterranean, near Greece. There is a slight continuity of the main characters, but the setting keeps going further back in time. The first one is kind of present day, there is a WWII chapter, and so on. At the end of each chapter is a page or two describing a person, maybe like the moral at the end of a parable.
The last chapter kind of explains things, trying to bring the story together. Then there is Gene's explanation of the entire experience, which might make some sort of sense, but it's kind of obscure. The ending did make up for a lot of the disjointedness of going from episode to episode.
The scholars probably love this kind of book, but I like my stories a bit more coherent. It certainly wasn't bad, but within my collection, I'm sure there are hundreds that I'd appreciate more. Probably a dozen of those are by Brunner himself. My recommendation is, if it's in your collection go ahead and read it, but it's not one you need to go out and get.
April 29, 2014
An interesting story following two lovers through time. It starts out a little confusing, becomes interesting , and ends a little heavy handed. It reads more like a collection of short stories with the same main characters, and I feel that the end, which is mostly dialogue, drags the whole thing down a bit as everything gets explained.
October 17, 2015
Cerebral sci-fi. A man and woman live in a seashore cave trying to survive traveling backward through time on a Greek island. Each chapter finds them in an older era (1980s, WWII, the Crusades, etc). They are an experiment to find astronauts able to mentally survive FTL travel. The individual chapters are engrossing and well written, especially with their colorful moralistic "remembrance" monologues, but the overall concept is unconvincing and the tell-all ending is anti-climatic.
March 11, 2021
I used to like John Brunner but I had not read this book. It's very difficult to understand what's going on for 2/3 of the book and I started just skimming through it hoping that would finally make sense at the end. He did explain what the first part of the book was about but really didn't make sense of it - at least to me. The best thing I can say about it is that it was short. I finished it in one afternoon.
January 29, 2019
I didn't really enjoy this book. At lot of time spent developing a very obscure idea, and which was difficult to understand when you got there. It could have been far shorter! Easy advice is don't bother!
September 22, 2017
Κυκλοφόρησε στα Ελληνικά, ως "Κύματα του χρόνου", εκδόσεις Aquarius.
June 16, 2019
Though it has surprising touches of poetry it lacks the biting gravitas of some of Brunner’s other works.
January 3, 2020
I *almost* understood the ending.
August 17, 2022
There is a really good idea but lost in the weeds of over complication, repetitive chapters and the lack of rapid plot development. The ending left more holes than answers.
August 18, 2023
The Tides of Time sweep a pair of orphaned misfits across thousands of years of history in this trippy New Wave tale from genre legend John Brunner.
September 30, 2023
One of Brunner’s later novels (1984), this is an interesting concept where on an isolated island a couple wake up each morning to a different life in a different time. The book is divided into ten chapters, each a different life. In one chapter the Third Reich has dominated the world, in another they try to communicate with 16th century Venetian spice traders. None of this is ever explained, it’s basically just a “what if” thought experiment.
Brunner might have been an idea man but he was hit or miss as a writer, depending on his level of inspiration. For example, we often get stilted passages such as this: “I shall go to market tomorrow, he remarked. Indeed, it seems we are low on provisions.”
Verdict: If you’re looking to explore Brunner I wouldn’t start here! Try Maze of Stars, instead.
Brunner might have been an idea man but he was hit or miss as a writer, depending on his level of inspiration. For example, we often get stilted passages such as this: “I shall go to market tomorrow, he remarked. Indeed, it seems we are low on provisions.”
Verdict: If you’re looking to explore Brunner I wouldn’t start here! Try Maze of Stars, instead.
June 5, 2012
It's not that it was a bad book, it was just a bit confusing most of the time for me. It's one of those where you have little idea what is going on until the last few chapters where it all starts coming together, but this is still rather confusing after that. It was an interesting concept; awaking in different times living a different life under the control of someone else. I think that's what it was, or something like that. It could have been done a little better and explained a little more. I liked the characters and some of the ideas were pretty cool, but it just needed a little more explanation.
July 28, 2008
An interesting book. Almost a series of short stories, the main characters find themselves traveling back in time as the book progresses. How and why we really don't know until very far into the book. Could'a been better if things were more developed in it, but still an interesting read with some very interesting ideas.
September 28, 2013
Having read and enjoyed Brunner's "More Things in Heaven", I thought I'd give "The Tides of Time" a try. The synopsis sounded interesting conceptually. Execution, however, was another matter. I struggled to get through this book hoping Brunner tied everything together in some brilliant denouement at the end. Unfortunately, he failed to deliver even that.
May 16, 2016
Can't really make up my mind if I like this book or not. It's a bit bitty (more like a series of short stories than a novel) and a bit "hippy/spiritual". It comes together well enough at the end, but it's definitely not your standard scifi epic. I would say give it a go, but I'm probably not going to add it to my bookshelf.
March 12, 2011
Grade D-. Boring.
July 7, 2012
Decent
May 19, 2021
Bunch of semi-interconnected stories that don't really serve a point in the end. Not worth it.
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April 30, 2019I have the german edition: Die Gezeiten der Zeit
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews