What do you think?
Rate this book
Crosstime/Blake Walker #1 & 2
Crosstime
An orphan, Blake Walker has never really known who he is, and his strange flashes of intuition have always set him apart from those who raised him and everyone else he has known. Acting on one of those flashes, he prevented a murder. But neither the assailant nor his intended victim were from the world Walker had always known, and he had stumbled onto the greatest secret of the ages. Our Earth is only one of an infinite number of Earths, each with a slightly different history from the others, each separated from the others in a crosstime dimension. Walker was drafted into a frantic search for a madman from an advanced Earth who desires to be an absolute ruler of men. The would-be tyrant has chosen our Earth as the place where his reign will begin. And, if the powerful technology he controls does not give him complete control of the planet, he will not hesitate to destroy it utterly . . .
Publisher’s Crosstime was originally published in parts as The Crossroads of Time and Quest Crosstime . This is the first time both novels have appeared in one volume.
Publisher’s Crosstime was originally published in parts as The Crossroads of Time and Quest Crosstime . This is the first time both novels have appeared in one volume.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2008
13 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Andre Norton
702 books1,407 followersAndre Norton, born Alice Mary Norton, was a pioneering American author of science fiction and fantasy, widely regarded as the Grande Dame of those genres. She also wrote historical and contemporary fiction, publishing under the pen names Andre Alice Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She launched her career in 1934 with The Prince Commands, adopting the name “Andre” to appeal to a male readership. After working for the Cleveland Library System and the Library of Congress, she began publishing science fiction under “Andrew North” and fantasy under her own name. She became a full-time writer in 1958 and was known for her prolific output, including Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Witch World, the latter spawning a long-running series and shared universe. Norton was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America and authored Quag Keep, the first novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. She influenced generations of writers, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey. Among her many honors were being the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master. In her later years, she established the High Hallack Library to support research in genre fiction. Her legacy continues with the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 21, 2022
Blake Walker was found as an orphaned or abandoned child, and raised as the child of the police officer who found him. He has no memories before that day, but while wholly human, he doesn't look quite like any familiar ethnic group. He also has a strange ability; he has a very reliable sense for when something seriously bad is about to happen.
Years later, in The Crossroads of Time (Crosstime, he's in New York City, about to enroll in art school, when his sense of impending danger leads to him thwarting an attempted murder. The intended victim has ID showing he's an FBI Special Agent, and he asks Blake for another favor. Soon he's involved in a wild hunt for a criminal mastermind--who isn't from this Earth. Neither are the FBI agent and the rest of his team. When Blake is captured by the criminal mastermind and attempts an escape, he encounters the criminal's secret crosstime shuttle, and finds himself traveling through strange alternate timelines, trying to reach either his own Earth, or the one where the crosstime law officers are based. His life is never going to be the same again.
In Quest Crosstime, he's now one of those crosstime police officers himself, and on an uninhabited Earth, he discovers that the local research station is involved in another nasty plot, this one aimed at shutting down more or less peaceful crosstime trade in favor of far tighter control, and targeted raids that will do far more damage to the alternate Earths, for the pure greed of the plotters. In the course of this, one of the two twin daughters of a high-ranking officer is kidnapped, and taken to another alternate world, where she will be used as a game piece to tip the balance in an internal struggle that will benefit the plotters on the homeworld of the crosstime trade and crosstime police. Both daughters are smart, educated, and independent, except for reasons we gradually learn, women aren't allowed to be quite this independent in that home culture. It's another exciting and dangerous adventure for Blake, as well as the twins.
I've always had fond memories of Norton's science fiction, but I was for a long time afraid to go back and reread it, for fear the Such Fairy would have paid it a visit. Recently, I've been rereading--or as in this case listening to audiobooks--and finding her work still holds up very well.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
Years later, in The Crossroads of Time (Crosstime, he's in New York City, about to enroll in art school, when his sense of impending danger leads to him thwarting an attempted murder. The intended victim has ID showing he's an FBI Special Agent, and he asks Blake for another favor. Soon he's involved in a wild hunt for a criminal mastermind--who isn't from this Earth. Neither are the FBI agent and the rest of his team. When Blake is captured by the criminal mastermind and attempts an escape, he encounters the criminal's secret crosstime shuttle, and finds himself traveling through strange alternate timelines, trying to reach either his own Earth, or the one where the crosstime law officers are based. His life is never going to be the same again.
In Quest Crosstime, he's now one of those crosstime police officers himself, and on an uninhabited Earth, he discovers that the local research station is involved in another nasty plot, this one aimed at shutting down more or less peaceful crosstime trade in favor of far tighter control, and targeted raids that will do far more damage to the alternate Earths, for the pure greed of the plotters. In the course of this, one of the two twin daughters of a high-ranking officer is kidnapped, and taken to another alternate world, where she will be used as a game piece to tip the balance in an internal struggle that will benefit the plotters on the homeworld of the crosstime trade and crosstime police. Both daughters are smart, educated, and independent, except for reasons we gradually learn, women aren't allowed to be quite this independent in that home culture. It's another exciting and dangerous adventure for Blake, as well as the twins.
I've always had fond memories of Norton's science fiction, but I was for a long time afraid to go back and reread it, for fear the Such Fairy would have paid it a visit. Recently, I've been rereading--or as in this case listening to audiobooks--and finding her work still holds up very well.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
completed-series
May 16, 2023No matter what I may have told you before, or may tell you in the future, this is the first time I have read the first book in this two-part series. I did read the second, Quest Crosstime, when I was about twelve.
July 29, 2018
An entertaining thriller about alternate timelines creating other worlds, with imaginative variations of Earth. I liked the creation of a "level hopping" between iterations, and the protagonist's use of his limited talents to be the hero. The imagination of an America where native and colonizer divide the continents into separate cultures, with attendant explorations of what the Aztec and Mayan cultures become as a modern nation, was intriguing.
June 4, 2024
Interesting setup. Definitely dated by when it was published. Was not keeping my interest.
January 28, 2016
an omnibus reprint of two connected alternate history novels from the 50s and 60s. I read them individually, probably in the 60s. This re-read confirms to me Norton's place in Science Fiction.
Of course, some things are dated, but the plot rings true and so do the characters.
In The Crossroads of Time, Young Blake Walker has always had flashes of intuition that warn him of trouble, sometimes for himself, sometimes for others. When he intervenes, saving a man from being murdered, he discovers an undercover operation from another universe with a different history. Because his other talent is a complete mind block against altering his memories he has to go with the team who are tracking down a criminal from their own world.
In the second book, Quest Crosstime, Blake has been trained to be an operative in the crosstime agency. When he is sent to an empty world on a routine journey to a Project seeding the world, he gets involved in some more odd goings-on.
Of course, some things are dated, but the plot rings true and so do the characters.
In The Crossroads of Time, Young Blake Walker has always had flashes of intuition that warn him of trouble, sometimes for himself, sometimes for others. When he intervenes, saving a man from being murdered, he discovers an undercover operation from another universe with a different history. Because his other talent is a complete mind block against altering his memories he has to go with the team who are tracking down a criminal from their own world.
In the second book, Quest Crosstime, Blake has been trained to be an operative in the crosstime agency. When he is sent to an empty world on a routine journey to a Project seeding the world, he gets involved in some more odd goings-on.
October 28, 2009
Two science-fiction books in one. The concept: other worlds on parallel times that have split from this world at different points in time.
For instance what if Hitler had won---. One such world finds a way to travel, not back or forward in time, but across time. Both books deal with the same main character.
For instance what if Hitler had won---. One such world finds a way to travel, not back or forward in time, but across time. Both books deal with the same main character.
January 13, 2010
Interesting just from the fact that they're science fiction stories written just as the genre was establishing itself, in about 1957. Fun to read about super-advanced civilization-detectives running to find a pay phone to insert their dime, or taping up pictures of bad guys on the wall.
December 2, 2009
One of my favorites of the recent Norton compilations. I personally have to read them in context of the times in which she wrote them, but I always find myself marveling at what she was doing...the ground she was breaking and the new genre she was helping to forge.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews