Ghosts of Time (4)

Jason Thanou #4

by Steve White

Book #4 of the Jason Thanou Time Travel series. Jason and his team travel to the latter days of the American Civil War to combat a transhumanist threat. Sequel to Pirates of the Timestream.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Earth’s blood-drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.
 
The transhumanists are attempting to use the chaos of the American Civil War to escape the Observer Effect: the immutable law that recorded history cannot be changed. If any should attempt it, time has a way of dealing with those transgressors in a very brutal, very final fashion. Now it is the last days of the Confederacy, and the Fall of Richmond looms.  In the Shenandoah Valley, in the region later known as Mosby’s Confederacy, insurgency brews, and the time travelers must join the raiders to prevent a transhumanist trap from dooming the mission from the start.  
 
Yet human freedom is ultimately on the line in both the past and the future, and the leader of a secret slave underground fighting for liberty possesses an incredible secret that may change Jason’s fate—and that of the future itself—forever.

About Pirates of the Timestreams:
 “White expertly blends historical and futuristic elements … to create a fast-paced, detail-rich tale, seamlessly inserting his own inventions into factual events … an exciting, engaging story, accessible to new readers and thoroughly satisfying for established fans.”—Publishers Weekly

About Steve White:
“White offers fast action and historically informed world-building.”—Publishers Weekly

About Steve White’s Forge of the Titans:
“. . . recalls the best of the John Campbell era of SF. White's core audience of hard SF fans will be pleased ...”—Publishers Weekly

 “. . . Engaging entertainment . . . much suspense and many well-handled action scenes . . .”—Booklist

 About Steve White’s St. Anthony’s Fire:
"Give this one high marks for entertainment.”—Booklist

The Jason Thanou Time Travel Series:
Blood of Heroes
Sunset of the Gods
Pirates of the Timestream
Ghosts of Time (upcoming)

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Adventure, Fiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2014

About the author

Born in 1948.
Steve White is an American science fiction author best known as the co-author of the Starfire-series alongside David Weber.

He is married with 3 daughters and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also works for a legal publishing company. He previously served as a United States Navy officer and served during the Vietnam War and in the Mediterranean region.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wh...

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason Thanou and his crew were in Richmond (VA) in April 1865 right before their mission to the Caribbean in Pirates of the Timestream. Now they are back in 1865 Virginia hunting for Transhuminists nanotechnology depots that were found after their previous incursion. Plenty of action, plenty of derring-do, a bit of interesting time-twisting and a big break for Jason and his crew in their war against the Transhumanists going forward. It will be interesting to see where the next volumes go.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent entry in this series, though they are starting to do a really complicated tap-dance to avoid running into themselves. This one is mostly set at the end of the Civil War, with a side excursion back to Port Royal just before it was destroyed. Excellent stuff, helped along by the fact that the author wove a lot of factual settings and characters into his plot, adding his story into the "gaps" in history. Which is, after all, what this series is all about.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy time travel stories and this series is no exception. I enjoy it a lot. The main problem with time travel stories though is of course paradox. One can come up with ways around it, to prevent it and otherwise deal with it and for a single story the reader can generally look past it, especially when it is a really good story. But for a series, things start to get a little harder and small easily ignored plots holes can begin to become more noticeable. As long as they don't take you too far out of the narrative you can get past them for a worthy yarn, which this is. Still you wonder, why is that protected and not a paradox but this isn't and why don't they just do this instead; generally the answer boils down to the same thing, there wouldn't be an enjoyable story otherwise. Looking forward to the next in this series.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another episode in the adventures of time traveller Jason Thanou and his pals.

You need to have read the others from Steve White otherwise you won't stand a chance of getting any of this. It's yer PROPER time travellin' not just bumming around the countryside like in the lamentable Dakota.

Mr White does it best. It's got a MAP and HYSTERICAL note as well. It's properly researched and you can check the major events on Wikipedia. I did and couldn't find fault.

Great stuff.

One con though.

Huh ?

You're kidding, right ?

Nope, IT'S TOO SHORT.

More length please Walter, more length.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old fashioned science fiction, a nice page turner.