Probably the best SF novel by a German writer! Wolfgang Jeschke made a big impression on me with this novel. Its episodic chapters are very thought-provoking and thus achieve the highest good of any novel: it stays in your head long after you've finished it.
First and foremost, of course, the novel impresses with its basic idea: mysterious archaeological discoveries are made in the Mediterranean region, which clearly confirm that time travel is possible and has definitely taken place. This confirms that the USA of the present day should carry out such a time travel project in order to cut off the Arabs' access to the gigantic oil reserves. Selected soldiers, pilots and researchers are sent millions of years into the past to successfully carry out the operation. This setting is fascinating and oppressive at the same time: what will await them there in a strange world that is (or will one day be) their own?
However, the novel manages to impress in a completely different way: it focuses on a few characters, on few, but concise scientific explanations and, above all, on how these few people are thrown into this primordial world and are then left to their own devices. Because the project is, of course, completely doomed to failure. Jeschke presents the hubris of mankind, the Western world, of being able to control everything in a very exaggerated but nevertheless accurate way. In the end, as in this novel, this often comes at the expense of ordinary people who have to cope with their despair on their own.
It is magnificent how Jeschke depicts the tragic, brutal reality that presents itself to the chosen ones of time travel in individual episodes. The descriptions of these distant prehistoric times are concise and fascinating. He takes the reader along with us, leaves us dismayed and perplexed and at the end you ask yourself: are we humans really that bad and are we allowing this catastrophe to happen with our eyes open?
The novel ends in a totally open-ended way, which adds to the appeal of this book for me and, as with many novels that deal with time travel or the end of the world, it also contains religious aspects that are not absolutely necessary, but are definitely part of our humanity.
P.S.: I read it for the first time almost 1 1/2 years ago, and recently listened to the terrific German radio play for the second time, and I have to admit that this radio play does a masterful job of conveying the atmosphere of the book. A recommendation for everyone!