Book review: “Against the Tide of Years” by S.M. Stirling
How the USA interferes in the middle east, 3150 years too early
Do you like Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites or samurai-pirates? Do you find yourself wondering what you could accomplish if you woke up one day and found yourself in the bronze age? Do you need to know how to build an airship or treat cholera? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should consider picking up “Against the Tide of Years” by S.M. Stirling.
This is book two in the trilogy which started with “Island in the Sea of Time” so this review contains spoilers for that book.
In book one the American island of Nantucket got transported 3200 years into the past, to the bronze age. In an attempt to ward off starvation and to kick-start industrialism 3000 years early, the Americans go on a trading mission to Alba, what would have become the British islands. They find a land wrapped up in prehistoric war between the Iraiina, a patriarchal Indo-European warrior culture, who’re invading and enslaving the native, matriarchal Earth Folk. When a small group of traitorous Americans, led by William Walker, defects to the Iraiina, Nantucket gets forced into the war on the other side. Nantucket won the war and when “Against the Tide of Years” starts, 7 years after the events of the first book, Alba has turned into protectorate of the Republic of Nantucket. Walker has fled to Agamemnon, king of the Mycenaean Greeks, at whose court the renegade renews his Machiavellian plotting in order to build up a new empire, using modern knowledge and stolen uptime literature. Straddling the strait of Gibraltar and covering large stretches of what would have become Morocco, Spain and Portugal, lies a kingdom ruled by Walker’s cunning ally Isketerol. The former merchant and captain has done well for himself, also using stolen American knowledge and people. From his throne he plots the invasion of Nantucket. In order to form a bulwark against Walker’s conquests, the Republic of Nantucket decides to build an alliance with Babylon and the Hittites and equip them with uptime technology. A second, larger war looms ever closer on the horizon.
As much as this is a book about massive battles and geopolitics it’s in equal measures a book about how to build a steam-tractor with preindustrial technology and the importance of sewage in city-planning. It’s filled with finicky and fiddly technical details which I’m more used to reading about in hard sci-fi. It’s almost as well researched as something Eric Flint would write and he has a PhD in history. Personally, I like this but I do miss the culture and myths of the first book. In book one Stirling incorporated the Indo-Aryan mythological complex and the Kurgan hypothesis into the setting in a way which was soundly based on myth-history, yet showed great inventiveness and lead to a vibrant idea world. I was hoping for something equally well-done with the Babylonian pantheon. I know Babylon has been hyped for at least 3000 years but I really wish it was depicted as something more epic than a stinking burrow.
The plot of the novel is quite slow paced for the first half. The scenes in Nantucket are depicted with a cheesy wholesomeness which draws on for too long. This stands in stark contrast to Alice Hong’s non-consensual BDSM torture sessions in Greece. Alice being a sociopathic uptime doctor and one of William Walker’s wives. The two settings jar up against each other like something which doesn’t belong in the same book. At least Walker forces the plot forward with his war planning and court intrigues. With his pragmatic and structured approach to evil he forms a formidable arch villain, a real Hitler wannabe. My favorite character by far is Marian Alston. She’s the former coastguard officer turned commodore of the combined arms of the Republic of Nantucket and the protectorate. She may be black and lesbian but she’s not jammed into the book like a token to appease intersectional feminists, this book was written before Woke culture ruined literature. No, she fits very well right into the centre of action. She’s beautiful as a bushido-practising poetry-slinging samurai-pirate and she gets her own buccaneer adventure which suits her very well. Ian Arnstein, the historian-turned-diplomat is pretty cool too I guess, but I’m partial because I always appreciate it when nerds do well for themselves and get laid in the stories I read. Aside from the characters mentioned above, the cast is quite bland.
The bronze-age world is getting increasingly globalized due to the distribution of advanced maritime technology. People and cultures which aren’t supposed to meet for centuries yet now make first contact with each other, which makes the setting weirder in a stimulating way. There’s wonky battles now, of huge armies, unevenly equipped with technologies hundreds of years apart. Recon-planes, sniper platoons and spearmen are pitted against musketeers, chariots with flint shotguns and rocket barrages. I’m excited for this to escalate in the third and final novel. “Against the Tide of Years” has the same dramaturgic problem as “Star Wars: Episode V”, it has no good beginning and no good end, since it’s the middle of a trilogy.
I would recommend this book to fans of Eric Flint and to people who’re interested in prehistory/early history or ancient mythology. I give it 7.5 of 10 bronze tomahawks.
