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Timeraider #1
Wartide
Don Sampson, a much-decorated Vietnam veteran, finds himself transported back to February 1944 and into the midst of the Allies' Italian campaign, where he is caught up in a desperate mission to foil the deployment of a last-resort German weapon.
- GenresScience Fiction
Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
24 people want to read
About the author
John Barnes
258 books198 followersJohn Barnes (born 1957) is an American science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. Social criticism is woven throughout his plots. The four novels in his Thousand Cultures series pose serious questions about the effects of globalization on isolated societies. Barnes holds a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught in Colorado, where he still lives.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 22, 2020
The best redemption story I've ever read. It hit's you right in the feels.
I'm not averse to good military fiction, and the Time Raider books are defiantly in this category, but when a time-traveling, spiritual element is added, you get magic. What if reincarnation was real but instead of moving forward, as you progressed toward enlightenment, you had to go back through your past lives on a near-impossible mission to redeem your soul.
Dan Samson is a 20th-century man who has finally passed a moral threshold, earning the right to make just such a backward journey. He dies and wakes as a past iteration of himself - selfish, petty, and almost evil. In every case, Dan seems to arrive just in time to realize what crap his past incarnation has dug himself into, but also in time to have a slim chance of turning things around. The other common thread is that he always seems to die in battle. Fate plays a big part in his career choices, friends and particularly, his enemies. You see, Dan is not the only one with past lives.
John Barnes' writing is tight and riveting but it's the ideas that make his books special. Each of us struggles with inner demons but nothing like Dan's. He is a good man who must constantly work to convert garbage into gladiolas, despite the hatred and entrenched expectations of everyone around him. I have often wanted to go back and do things differently, through Time Raider we get to share in the ultimate extension of that desire.
I'm not averse to good military fiction, and the Time Raider books are defiantly in this category, but when a time-traveling, spiritual element is added, you get magic. What if reincarnation was real but instead of moving forward, as you progressed toward enlightenment, you had to go back through your past lives on a near-impossible mission to redeem your soul.
Dan Samson is a 20th-century man who has finally passed a moral threshold, earning the right to make just such a backward journey. He dies and wakes as a past iteration of himself - selfish, petty, and almost evil. In every case, Dan seems to arrive just in time to realize what crap his past incarnation has dug himself into, but also in time to have a slim chance of turning things around. The other common thread is that he always seems to die in battle. Fate plays a big part in his career choices, friends and particularly, his enemies. You see, Dan is not the only one with past lives.
John Barnes' writing is tight and riveting but it's the ideas that make his books special. Each of us struggles with inner demons but nothing like Dan's. He is a good man who must constantly work to convert garbage into gladiolas, despite the hatred and entrenched expectations of everyone around him. I have often wanted to go back and do things differently, through Time Raider we get to share in the ultimate extension of that desire.
Displaying 1 of 1 review