What do you think?
Rate this book
Nur die Zeit zum Feind
Joshua Kampa, the illegitimate son of a mute Spanish whore and a black serviceman, has always dreamed of Africa. But his dreams are of an Africa far in the past and are so vivid and in such hallucinatory detail that he is able to question the understanding of eminent palaeontologists. As a result, Joshua is invited to join a most unusual time travel project and is transported millions of years into the past of his dreams. In early Pleistocene Africa, living among the prehuman species Homo habilis, experiencing the same hardships and the same intense pleasures, Joshua finds, for the first time in his troubled life, not only contentment but real love--a love that transcends almost everything. Intelligent, thoughtful and deeply moving, No Enemy But Time brilliantly evokes the remote past and, at the same time, presents a powerful and convincing portrayal of a relationship surmounting even the most daunting barriers. It is a challenging and highly original novel exploring the nature and origins of humankind.
415 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
23 people are currently reading
3165 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bishop
306 books105 followersMichael Lawson Bishop was an award-winning American writer. Over four decades & thirty books, he created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern sf & fantasy literature.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
April 16, 2012
One of the great things about the Kindle is that I can highlight passages I want to use in my reviews. The first such passage from No Enemy but time was:
Alfie had almost certainly plucked from her the fresh gardenia of her maidenhood, for his chieftaincy of the Minids gave him carnal access to almost every female who had attained menarche.
The problem with highlighting this sentence is that it was so awful that it opened my eyes to how awful the rest of the prose was. So that leaves the plot and the characters.
The plot can be summarized as a guy traveling back in time to observe hominids. Something about the way the author wrote about a female hominid early in the book made me sure that they'd end up doing it later in the book...I'm not quite sure how icky that is, but it definitely is at least a little bit icky. The chapters about the time-traveling alternate with chapters about the protagonist's life which lead up to the time-traveling. Oh, and the time-traveling happens via dreams, which just makes things feel less science-fictiony.
The non-time-travel chapters actually tell a more compelling story. The time travel part features the standard question of getting stuck in the past, but by late in the book neither the protagonist nor the reader cares.
There are a few interesting ideas in this book. So it is saved from the 1-star designation, if barely. I don't know whether 1982 was a weak year for Nebula, or after 30 years not everything ages well. (The LeGuin books from the 1970s continue to be fantastic, however.) Hmm. Now I see Bishop beat out Asimov, Heinlein and Dick to win the award. Foundation's Edge wasn't as strong as earlier Asimov, Friday had its own icky parts, and I haven't read the Philip K. Dick work. But I think I'd recommend any of them over No Enemy But Time.
Alfie had almost certainly plucked from her the fresh gardenia of her maidenhood, for his chieftaincy of the Minids gave him carnal access to almost every female who had attained menarche.
The problem with highlighting this sentence is that it was so awful that it opened my eyes to how awful the rest of the prose was. So that leaves the plot and the characters.
The plot can be summarized as a guy traveling back in time to observe hominids. Something about the way the author wrote about a female hominid early in the book made me sure that they'd end up doing it later in the book...I'm not quite sure how icky that is, but it definitely is at least a little bit icky. The chapters about the time-traveling alternate with chapters about the protagonist's life which lead up to the time-traveling. Oh, and the time-traveling happens via dreams, which just makes things feel less science-fictiony.
The non-time-travel chapters actually tell a more compelling story. The time travel part features the standard question of getting stuck in the past, but by late in the book neither the protagonist nor the reader cares.
There are a few interesting ideas in this book. So it is saved from the 1-star designation, if barely. I don't know whether 1982 was a weak year for Nebula, or after 30 years not everything ages well. (The LeGuin books from the 1970s continue to be fantastic, however.) Hmm. Now I see Bishop beat out Asimov, Heinlein and Dick to win the award. Foundation's Edge wasn't as strong as earlier Asimov, Friday had its own icky parts, and I haven't read the Philip K. Dick work. But I think I'd recommend any of them over No Enemy But Time.
May 31, 2021
It wasn't good and I didn't like any of it.
February 11, 2013
No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop won the Nebula after its 1982 publication, and has become a neglected, important novel. It could still strike a chord in any reader through the quality of the prose and because, like any great fiction, it delves into timeless themes of a painful past affecting a person's alienated present life. The novel's illustration of the psychological costs of U.S. racism is by itself one of the strong aspects, and prove the talent of Michael Bishop, a (white) professor living in Pine Mountain, GA (and a nicer guy than almost anyone you could meet in the SF field).
The novel's protagonist is a disaffected young baby-boom era African-American man, who, as an Army brat, grew up rootless. He dreams of prehistoric Africa. Air Force scientists carrying out a secret government experiment in Africa are able to send John Monegal, a.k.a. Joshua Kampa back in time to the Early Pleistocene era in Central Africa. Once there, he actually adapts and finds family and love. Was time his barrier to finding the good life, was he simply "a man out of time," as Elvis Costello put it in song around that time?
The novel's protagonist is a disaffected young baby-boom era African-American man, who, as an Army brat, grew up rootless. He dreams of prehistoric Africa. Air Force scientists carrying out a secret government experiment in Africa are able to send John Monegal, a.k.a. Joshua Kampa back in time to the Early Pleistocene era in Central Africa. Once there, he actually adapts and finds family and love. Was time his barrier to finding the good life, was he simply "a man out of time," as Elvis Costello put it in song around that time?
July 31, 2019
2.5 Stars
What do I do with this one? Within the first 30 pages the writing style and the product placement irked me. Somewhere around the first third I thought about DNFing and started skimming. The last chapters though appealed a lot more to me and made me think if I perhaps should have given the novel more credit.
What I liked was the idea of the 'dream travel' and the alternating chapters of Joshua's present and past that painted the picture of a young man with a difficult past who seems to be happier out of his time.
What I didn't like was the prose attempt at being witty (I guess the product placement was meant as part of this). It just read wrong in the moments it appeared. Rather than smile I rolled my eyes. Outside of the witty parts the prose often felt too artificial for me and prevented any deeper interest in the characters, who felt mostly cardboard. Let's not talk about the flowery go at describing sex scenes which made me cringe.
In essence I would say it was a good idea, yet the prose and I didn't become friends and I would have wished for more explanations about the project (i.e. why it was financed with so little actual use)
... And I have no idea what to do with the space ship ...
What do I do with this one? Within the first 30 pages the writing style and the product placement irked me. Somewhere around the first third I thought about DNFing and started skimming. The last chapters though appealed a lot more to me and made me think if I perhaps should have given the novel more credit.
What I liked was the idea of the 'dream travel' and the alternating chapters of Joshua's present and past that painted the picture of a young man with a difficult past who seems to be happier out of his time.
What I didn't like was the prose attempt at being witty (I guess the product placement was meant as part of this). It just read wrong in the moments it appeared. Rather than smile I rolled my eyes. Outside of the witty parts the prose often felt too artificial for me and prevented any deeper interest in the characters, who felt mostly cardboard. Let's not talk about the flowery go at describing sex scenes which made me cringe.
In essence I would say it was a good idea, yet the prose and I didn't become friends and I would have wished for more explanations about the project (i.e. why it was financed with so little actual use)
... And I have no idea what to do with the space ship ...
December 10, 2015
Me siento frustrado. El título de esta novela me ha llamado la atención durante muchos años pero cada vez que me acercaba al libro, por un motivo u otro, acababa postergando su lectura. Ahora que la he leído lo lamento porque ha perdido su encanto.
La novela narra el viaje al pleistoceno de un obsevador, un crononauta que ha soñado toda su vida con viajar a ese "cuándo" pasado, y en realidad es una excusa para hablarnos de la evolución humana y de la importancia de los descubrimientos de los Lakey en los 70. Genial, instructivo, interesante...pero ya no es novedoso. Quién haya visto alguno de los últimos documentales sobre la evolución de la especia humana habrá visto lo que nos cuenta la novela desde un punto de vista muy parecido. Claro que la novela es de hace treinta años y los guionistas habrán leído la novela para ambientarse pero eso no disminuye la sensación de pérdida porque lo que hacía interesante la historia era la sensación de estar contando algo totalmente nuevo.
Por lo demás es interesante, ágil y bien argumentada. La narración de la vida del crononauta antes del viaje es mucho más interesante que el viaje en si mismo. Lo único que quitaría es la coda final, un pegote que no tiene mucho sentido más allá de proporcionar una excusa para escribir una segunda parte.
En resumen: para aficionados a la paleontología y a seguidores de los Beatles (por lo de Lucy in the sky with diamonds...)
La novela narra el viaje al pleistoceno de un obsevador, un crononauta que ha soñado toda su vida con viajar a ese "cuándo" pasado, y en realidad es una excusa para hablarnos de la evolución humana y de la importancia de los descubrimientos de los Lakey en los 70. Genial, instructivo, interesante...pero ya no es novedoso. Quién haya visto alguno de los últimos documentales sobre la evolución de la especia humana habrá visto lo que nos cuenta la novela desde un punto de vista muy parecido. Claro que la novela es de hace treinta años y los guionistas habrán leído la novela para ambientarse pero eso no disminuye la sensación de pérdida porque lo que hacía interesante la historia era la sensación de estar contando algo totalmente nuevo.
Por lo demás es interesante, ágil y bien argumentada. La narración de la vida del crononauta antes del viaje es mucho más interesante que el viaje en si mismo. Lo único que quitaría es la coda final, un pegote que no tiene mucho sentido más allá de proporcionar una excusa para escribir una segunda parte.
En resumen: para aficionados a la paleontología y a seguidores de los Beatles (por lo de Lucy in the sky with diamonds...)
March 15, 2020
No lo considero un mal libro, está bien escrito y se lee bien, pero hay poca SF y los viajes en el tiempo a través de los sueños o proyecciones astrales requieren mucha fe por parte del lector. Quizás la parte que relata la vida del protagonista sea la más acertada a la vez que la más convencional, se ve que es donde el autor se siente más a gusto. La otra parte, que transcurre en el Pleistoceno, resulta algo inverosímil y además está escrita con un estilo entre irónico y humorístico que no me convenció. Al protagonista le falta el carisma que requiere un personaje gracioso, no cae particularmente bien. Tampoco me gusta como se resuelve el periodo en el Pleistoceno, ni la coda final que alarga el relato innecesariamente. En general no es particularmente mi libro favorito. 5/10.
February 3, 2024
It mainly fails by being rather too long and slow, and then rushing through a jumbled ending. I feel like a ruthless editor could have deleted at least 10% and improved this story a lot - which is something I don't often say about professionally published novels.
It just wasn't sure what it wanted to be - or perhaps that's my fault and I was just expecting the wrong thing? It's a SF award winner so I was expecting a lot more science fiction. The SF is so weak and rare that we can demote it to magical realism. The narrative is more concerned with the protagonist's personal relationships with the early hominids than the kind of nerdy obsession with the pleistocene that I would like to see from SF (ok, ok, that's my fault and my expectations, it's not fair to judge a book for not being something else).
As a literary story about a young man with mommy issues who needs to belong it does a little better. People criticise the purple prose, but I think it's a characteristic of Joshua, our loquacious protagonist whose life is filled with silences, and not a flaw of the author's writing style. I like the overworked metaphors. But they weren't enough to overcome the dullness of his experiences (an extraordinary thing to say about a man who time-travels, but here we are).
It just wasn't sure what it wanted to be - or perhaps that's my fault and I was just expecting the wrong thing? It's a SF award winner so I was expecting a lot more science fiction. The SF is so weak and rare that we can demote it to magical realism. The narrative is more concerned with the protagonist's personal relationships with the early hominids than the kind of nerdy obsession with the pleistocene that I would like to see from SF (ok, ok, that's my fault and my expectations, it's not fair to judge a book for not being something else).
As a literary story about a young man with mommy issues who needs to belong it does a little better. People criticise the purple prose, but I think it's a characteristic of Joshua, our loquacious protagonist whose life is filled with silences, and not a flaw of the author's writing style. I like the overworked metaphors. But they weren't enough to overcome the dullness of his experiences (an extraordinary thing to say about a man who time-travels, but here we are).
November 6, 2023
This time travel story starts ok, but then wanders off into something relatively incoherent and uninteresting. It is a bit uncomfortable for a white guy like Bishop to write in the first person about a black male protagonist if I am perfectly honest. I was fascinated early on, but then the relationship between the humanoid and the protagonist was ridiculous and the conclusion of the book was even worse. I think the whole thing became a train wreck at about 2/3 of the way in. Maybe other folks appreciated it more, but it just annoyed me by the end.
August 5, 2023
Check out my full, spoiler free, video review HERE. Really enjoyed this book, it was entertaining, witty and intriguing. There are a few issues that keep this from a 5 star. Can't wait to read more Bishop.
March 8, 2021
More like 3.5 stars and only because I felt like the author didn't know how to end the book.
That doesn't matter as much as I'd thought it might, in retrospect, for this is a fun read. Time travel stories require a certain ballsiness to make them interesting. The concept of Enemy is awesome (I'm surprised there hasn't been an HBO series made yet): a short black dude gets sent back in time to primordial East Africa to observe and camp out with hominids for a project on filling out the evolutionary gaps in humanity's record. That's pretty much it. Our clever time traveler is also plagued, from childhood, with dream-wandering, a kind of astral projection that's more corporeal than it has any right to be. That has something to do too with why he gets picked for the mission, but, whatever. The meat of this novel is him discovering and trying to get himself accepted by our primate ancestors. It's often quite funny (a gifted pair of his underwear serves as tribal totem at one point) and does a great job of detailing the little details of how an expedition like this would actually play out.
Like I mentioned above, though, the book runs out of steam at a moment just when it is getting interesting, but it's worth it anyway. I can't fault Bishop, he's a good writer, but it is likely challenging to have any kind of satisfying denouement to such a strange tale.
That doesn't matter as much as I'd thought it might, in retrospect, for this is a fun read. Time travel stories require a certain ballsiness to make them interesting. The concept of Enemy is awesome (I'm surprised there hasn't been an HBO series made yet): a short black dude gets sent back in time to primordial East Africa to observe and camp out with hominids for a project on filling out the evolutionary gaps in humanity's record. That's pretty much it. Our clever time traveler is also plagued, from childhood, with dream-wandering, a kind of astral projection that's more corporeal than it has any right to be. That has something to do too with why he gets picked for the mission, but, whatever. The meat of this novel is him discovering and trying to get himself accepted by our primate ancestors. It's often quite funny (a gifted pair of his underwear serves as tribal totem at one point) and does a great job of detailing the little details of how an expedition like this would actually play out.
Like I mentioned above, though, the book runs out of steam at a moment just when it is getting interesting, but it's worth it anyway. I can't fault Bishop, he's a good writer, but it is likely challenging to have any kind of satisfying denouement to such a strange tale.
March 31, 2025
Liebes Tagebuch,
im Roman NUR DIE ZEIT ZUM FEIND von Michael Bishop geht es um eine Zeitreise zur Wiege der Menschheit ins sog. "pleistozäne Afrika" vor Millionen Jahren.
Zu den Hintergünden: Vor etwa 8 Millionen Jahren spaltete sich die Entwicklungslinie des Menschen von der der heutigen Menschenaffen ab. Vor etwa 2,5 Millionen Jahren entwickelten sich aus den Australopithecinen erste Vertreter der Gattung Homo: der "Homo habilis" und der "Homo rudolfensis", erstere Gattung wird im Roman eine Rolle spielen. Diese Vormenschen besaßen ein höheres Gehirnvolumen von etwa 700 Kubikzentimetern, einen vollständig aufrechten Gang und sie konnten Steingeräte herstellen – eine entscheidende Innovation in der Humanevolution.
Zum Buch: Dies ist also eine Geschichte über einen schwarzen Amerikaner namens "John" alias "Joshua Kampa". Er reist etwa zwei Millionen Jahre in der Zeit zurück, an einen Ort mizt einem See in Ostafrika. Dort freundet er sich mit einem Stamm von Hominiden an, primitiven Vorfahren der modernen Menschheit ("Homo habilis"), und „heiratet“ schließlich eines der "Weibchen" bzw. Frauen: Helena. Sie stirbt bei der Geburt, und Joshua bringt seine Tochter zurück in seine eigene Zeit, in die späten 1980er Jahre.
NUR DIE ZEIT ZUM FEIND scheint eine große Geschichte einer "Liebe über die Äonen hinweg" zu sein, wäre da nicht der antiromantische Ton des Romans. Denn der Plot wird auf eine seltsam distanzierte, fragende und trocken-humorvolle Weise erzählt. Die paläoanthropologischen Details sind hervorragend ausgearbeitet, die afrikanischen Landschaften wunderschön beschrieben, und doch wirkt das Buch irgendwie kühl und auf Distanz gehalten.
Michael Bishops Prosastil ist ein guter, die Inhalte scheinen genau recherchiert und er salzt alles mit absichtlich platzierten kleinen Witzen. Dieses Buch ist das Werk eines talentierten und ernsthaften Schriftstellers, aber manchmal ist es schwer, zu erkennen, worauf er hinaus will.
Einerseits erzählt uns unser Held John in Ich-Perspektive sehr nah und eindrücklich seine Reise durch die Vorzeit, sein Erleben, Fühlen und Bangen in dieser doch recht harten Welt, es geht hier insbesondere um seine Abenteuer und seine Beziehung zu der Gruppe von "Homo Habilis"; auch um seine (durchaus kritisch zu sehende) Liebes-/Sexualbeziehung zu einer weiblichen Hominidin.
Anderserseits erfahren wir aus der personalen Erzählperspektive einen oft nüchternen Abriss von Johns Kindheit und Erwachsenendaseins im 20. Jahrhundert, hier haben wir vorwiegend Elemente einer Charakterstudie: Die Kapitel in der dritten Person erzählen Johns Leben, von seiner unehelichen Geburt in der Nähe eines amerikanischen Luftwaffenstützpunkts in Spanien bis zu dem Moment, als er als von der Regierung geförderter Anthropologe Zeitreisen unternimmt, um die Geheimnisse der menschlichen Herkunft zu entschlüsseln. Der größte Teil dieses Handlungsstrangs ist zwangsläufig keine Science-Fiction: Es handelt sich eher um eine geradlinige und realistische Erzählung über ein modernes Leben der 80er, die stellenweise sogar einfühlsam erzählt wird. John hat ein angespanntes Verhältnis zu seinen Pflegeeltern; er träumt in halluzinatorischen Details vom prähistorischen Afrika; diese Träume sind das Tor für die Zeitreise.
Diese Mischung aus Paläontologie, Psychologie und Mystizismus mag einige SF-Leser irritieren, vor allem diejenigen, die ihre Science Fiction gerne rational fundiert haben und ihre Zeitmaschinen als echte "ölige Vehikel" (und nicht als Traumkutschen) sehen wollen. Auch mich irritierte die "Realitätsverschiebung" in der Tat. Ich frage: "Wie kann John ein sehr greifbares Himinidenkind aus der Vergangenheit zurückbringen, wenn die vorzeitliche Welt, die er besucht hat, nur eine Projektion seines eigenen Geistes ist?"
Fazit: Der Roman besticht durch wunderbare Schilderungen und Abenteuer der Vorzeit sowie seine Charakterzeichnung des Helden und seinen abwechslungsreichen Aufbau, bspw. durch stetige Wechsel der Erzählperspektiven, und verzichtet auf einen technischen Erklärungsversuch der Zeitreise.
Das Buch hat mir insgesamt recht gut gefallen, es ist abwechslungsreich und stellenweise richtig humorvoll geschrieben.
im Roman NUR DIE ZEIT ZUM FEIND von Michael Bishop geht es um eine Zeitreise zur Wiege der Menschheit ins sog. "pleistozäne Afrika" vor Millionen Jahren.
Zu den Hintergünden: Vor etwa 8 Millionen Jahren spaltete sich die Entwicklungslinie des Menschen von der der heutigen Menschenaffen ab. Vor etwa 2,5 Millionen Jahren entwickelten sich aus den Australopithecinen erste Vertreter der Gattung Homo: der "Homo habilis" und der "Homo rudolfensis", erstere Gattung wird im Roman eine Rolle spielen. Diese Vormenschen besaßen ein höheres Gehirnvolumen von etwa 700 Kubikzentimetern, einen vollständig aufrechten Gang und sie konnten Steingeräte herstellen – eine entscheidende Innovation in der Humanevolution.
Zum Buch: Dies ist also eine Geschichte über einen schwarzen Amerikaner namens "John" alias "Joshua Kampa". Er reist etwa zwei Millionen Jahre in der Zeit zurück, an einen Ort mizt einem See in Ostafrika. Dort freundet er sich mit einem Stamm von Hominiden an, primitiven Vorfahren der modernen Menschheit ("Homo habilis"), und „heiratet“ schließlich eines der "Weibchen" bzw. Frauen: Helena. Sie stirbt bei der Geburt, und Joshua bringt seine Tochter zurück in seine eigene Zeit, in die späten 1980er Jahre.
NUR DIE ZEIT ZUM FEIND scheint eine große Geschichte einer "Liebe über die Äonen hinweg" zu sein, wäre da nicht der antiromantische Ton des Romans. Denn der Plot wird auf eine seltsam distanzierte, fragende und trocken-humorvolle Weise erzählt. Die paläoanthropologischen Details sind hervorragend ausgearbeitet, die afrikanischen Landschaften wunderschön beschrieben, und doch wirkt das Buch irgendwie kühl und auf Distanz gehalten.
Michael Bishops Prosastil ist ein guter, die Inhalte scheinen genau recherchiert und er salzt alles mit absichtlich platzierten kleinen Witzen. Dieses Buch ist das Werk eines talentierten und ernsthaften Schriftstellers, aber manchmal ist es schwer, zu erkennen, worauf er hinaus will.
Einerseits erzählt uns unser Held John in Ich-Perspektive sehr nah und eindrücklich seine Reise durch die Vorzeit, sein Erleben, Fühlen und Bangen in dieser doch recht harten Welt, es geht hier insbesondere um seine Abenteuer und seine Beziehung zu der Gruppe von "Homo Habilis"; auch um seine (durchaus kritisch zu sehende) Liebes-/Sexualbeziehung zu einer weiblichen Hominidin.
Anderserseits erfahren wir aus der personalen Erzählperspektive einen oft nüchternen Abriss von Johns Kindheit und Erwachsenendaseins im 20. Jahrhundert, hier haben wir vorwiegend Elemente einer Charakterstudie: Die Kapitel in der dritten Person erzählen Johns Leben, von seiner unehelichen Geburt in der Nähe eines amerikanischen Luftwaffenstützpunkts in Spanien bis zu dem Moment, als er als von der Regierung geförderter Anthropologe Zeitreisen unternimmt, um die Geheimnisse der menschlichen Herkunft zu entschlüsseln. Der größte Teil dieses Handlungsstrangs ist zwangsläufig keine Science-Fiction: Es handelt sich eher um eine geradlinige und realistische Erzählung über ein modernes Leben der 80er, die stellenweise sogar einfühlsam erzählt wird. John hat ein angespanntes Verhältnis zu seinen Pflegeeltern; er träumt in halluzinatorischen Details vom prähistorischen Afrika; diese Träume sind das Tor für die Zeitreise.
Diese Mischung aus Paläontologie, Psychologie und Mystizismus mag einige SF-Leser irritieren, vor allem diejenigen, die ihre Science Fiction gerne rational fundiert haben und ihre Zeitmaschinen als echte "ölige Vehikel" (und nicht als Traumkutschen) sehen wollen. Auch mich irritierte die "Realitätsverschiebung" in der Tat. Ich frage: "Wie kann John ein sehr greifbares Himinidenkind aus der Vergangenheit zurückbringen, wenn die vorzeitliche Welt, die er besucht hat, nur eine Projektion seines eigenen Geistes ist?"
Fazit: Der Roman besticht durch wunderbare Schilderungen und Abenteuer der Vorzeit sowie seine Charakterzeichnung des Helden und seinen abwechslungsreichen Aufbau, bspw. durch stetige Wechsel der Erzählperspektiven, und verzichtet auf einen technischen Erklärungsversuch der Zeitreise.
Das Buch hat mir insgesamt recht gut gefallen, es ist abwechslungsreich und stellenweise richtig humorvoll geschrieben.
April 8, 2015
No Enemy But Time (1982) 397 pages by Michael Bishop.
The story jumped back & forth in the life of John-John Monegal/Joshua Kampa, and for good reason. If it had been a straight chronological telling of his life, the reader would have long since given up on the story. Instead there are snippets from his childhood and on up to his time traveling. Interspersed with this are the chapters that Joshua spent doing the time traveling.
All his life John-John has spirit traveled to the beginnings of human evolution two million years ago. Now Dr. Kaprow has invented a way for a spirit traveler such as Joshua to visit those times.
Joshua goes back and immediately finds that his transcordian, the device that is to keep him in contact with the present day, doesn't work. Not only that but the appearance of the time machine scaffold which is supposed to come out three times a day isn't there at the prescribed times. Joshua takes this in stride and continues his mission of finding a hominid tribe and studying them. He ends up joining a band and living with them.
There's a blurb on the back cover that says "'Prehistoric detail is marvelous...crackingly funny.' - The Times" Certainly not the way I would describe it. Maybe some subtle humor, but nothing outlandish. I thought it was a straight up tale of how he interacted with this troop, faced dangers, foraged for food. One of the Minids died and they put him high in a tree so that a leopard would eat his flesh and not a hyena or vulture. That just seems like an ordinary detail.
After the first couple of chapters I was prepared to say this was bad, but once Joshua went into the past the story was really good.
The story jumped back & forth in the life of John-John Monegal/Joshua Kampa, and for good reason. If it had been a straight chronological telling of his life, the reader would have long since given up on the story. Instead there are snippets from his childhood and on up to his time traveling. Interspersed with this are the chapters that Joshua spent doing the time traveling.
All his life John-John has spirit traveled to the beginnings of human evolution two million years ago. Now Dr. Kaprow has invented a way for a spirit traveler such as Joshua to visit those times.
Joshua goes back and immediately finds that his transcordian, the device that is to keep him in contact with the present day, doesn't work. Not only that but the appearance of the time machine scaffold which is supposed to come out three times a day isn't there at the prescribed times. Joshua takes this in stride and continues his mission of finding a hominid tribe and studying them. He ends up joining a band and living with them.
There's a blurb on the back cover that says "'Prehistoric detail is marvelous...crackingly funny.' - The Times" Certainly not the way I would describe it. Maybe some subtle humor, but nothing outlandish. I thought it was a straight up tale of how he interacted with this troop, faced dangers, foraged for food. One of the Minids died and they put him high in a tree so that a leopard would eat his flesh and not a hyena or vulture. That just seems like an ordinary detail.
After the first couple of chapters I was prepared to say this was bad, but once Joshua went into the past the story was really good.
May 28, 2025
2025 Book #16:
No Enemy But Time (1982) by Michael Bishop
A quirky, sometimes charming, but ultimately exhausting novel. No Enemy But Time tells the story of Joshua Kampa, a modern man blessed with vivid “spirit-traveling” dreams of the Pleistocene era. Kampa is recruited to travel back in time and live amongst early hominids once his gift is discovered by a famous scientist. Bishop alternates the time-travel chapters with Joshua’s early-life story, which reads like a rather conventional bildungsroman. Let’s get the positives out of the way: Bishop’s prose is undeniably virtuosic, with clever turns of phrase and inimitable metaphors on every page. The novel’s themes are also laudable, as Bishop attempts to interrogate our attachment to “origins” and what makes us human. He ultimately arrives, I think, at a covert critique of the logics undergirding racism in contemporary society (it is certainly no coincidence that the protagonist of this novel is Black). But for all its commendable features, No Enemy But time is too damn long. The prose might be great, but it becomes cloying and tiring as huge stretches of the book pass without narrative momentum. The reader gets the sense that Bishop is just showing off, using as many words as possible to describe the most mundane objects and grinding the plot to a halt. So much of this book depicts Joshua hanging out with hominids and roaming around the prehistoric African savanna. This is interesting at first, but could have easily been condensed. When the theme of the novel finally rears its head, it feels like too little too late. Also, I was hoping for a bit more science babble in this SF novel. Having read Barrington Bayley’s Collision Course earlier this year – a novel with many creative and technical theories about time travel – my expectations were high. No Enemy But Time, however, is closer to a fantasy novel: it doesn’t really care about the details or implications of time-travel technology so much as it uses time travel as a simple conceit to springboard into a social theme. This is, of course, not necessarily a negative thing (consider Octavia Butler’s Kindred for this premise done well). But for a novel of this length, we could have easily gotten both technicality and strong thematic content (Bayley manages to accomplish both in about 200 pages). Instead, we languish with chapter after repetitive chapter of ancient hominids and their boring lives. I’ve been impressed by Bishop’s short stories before, but it’ll be a while before I tackle one of his novels again. (low 3/5)
No Enemy But Time (1982) by Michael Bishop
A quirky, sometimes charming, but ultimately exhausting novel. No Enemy But Time tells the story of Joshua Kampa, a modern man blessed with vivid “spirit-traveling” dreams of the Pleistocene era. Kampa is recruited to travel back in time and live amongst early hominids once his gift is discovered by a famous scientist. Bishop alternates the time-travel chapters with Joshua’s early-life story, which reads like a rather conventional bildungsroman. Let’s get the positives out of the way: Bishop’s prose is undeniably virtuosic, with clever turns of phrase and inimitable metaphors on every page. The novel’s themes are also laudable, as Bishop attempts to interrogate our attachment to “origins” and what makes us human. He ultimately arrives, I think, at a covert critique of the logics undergirding racism in contemporary society (it is certainly no coincidence that the protagonist of this novel is Black). But for all its commendable features, No Enemy But time is too damn long. The prose might be great, but it becomes cloying and tiring as huge stretches of the book pass without narrative momentum. The reader gets the sense that Bishop is just showing off, using as many words as possible to describe the most mundane objects and grinding the plot to a halt. So much of this book depicts Joshua hanging out with hominids and roaming around the prehistoric African savanna. This is interesting at first, but could have easily been condensed. When the theme of the novel finally rears its head, it feels like too little too late. Also, I was hoping for a bit more science babble in this SF novel. Having read Barrington Bayley’s Collision Course earlier this year – a novel with many creative and technical theories about time travel – my expectations were high. No Enemy But Time, however, is closer to a fantasy novel: it doesn’t really care about the details or implications of time-travel technology so much as it uses time travel as a simple conceit to springboard into a social theme. This is, of course, not necessarily a negative thing (consider Octavia Butler’s Kindred for this premise done well). But for a novel of this length, we could have easily gotten both technicality and strong thematic content (Bayley manages to accomplish both in about 200 pages). Instead, we languish with chapter after repetitive chapter of ancient hominids and their boring lives. I’ve been impressed by Bishop’s short stories before, but it’ll be a while before I tackle one of his novels again. (low 3/5)
January 13, 2018
There’s some weird stuff here. Time travel that isn’t quite. The protagonist of the story is the illegitimate son of a nonverbal Spanish prostitute and an African American serviceman stationed nearby. Pleistocene central Africa and some hominids on the verge of making the transition to modern humans.
So there’s some weird stuff here, and a weird blend, but I found the writing solid and the plot workable, and the illustrated racism, both personal and institutional, just as recognizable in American society today as it was when the book was written thirty-five years ago.
Has a bit of a rough start, perhaps a bit too much build up, but once we start getting into the true time travel aspects of the story and Joshua’s survival in the Pleistocene, befriending a tribe of early hominids and being welcomed to the point where he actually takes a lover, whom he names Helen. She eventually turns out to be an early homo sapien, based on their offspring, but it’s weird for a while, uncomfortable even, as it’s meant to be, as we contemplate and observe a full romantic and sexual relationship between a human being and a hominid from a species that preceded us. That, aside from speech, he adapts more to her than she does to him, blurs the line but never quite removes it.
If there’s one thing that bothers me structurally about the story it’s the value of the project itself. I can see things as an intellectual and exploratory exercise, with the amount of knowledge to be gained about the particular period in history almost incalculable, but I’m more than a bit confused on why the not-exactly-time travel is worthwhile as a military project and warrants the huge resource expenditure involved from the military. Politically, it makes complete sense for an African country struggling to bring itself up to the standards of the developed world, but the possibilities are so limited in time frame due to the nature of how the travel is managed in the first place, the military applications seem non-existent until a hint is dropped near the end of the story.
Overall rating: 3.5 stars, pushing towards 4. The imagination, the concept, and the almost completely realistic portrayal of the main character all blend together to produce an enjoyable read. That the book makes me uncomfortable at times and tries to make me think or re-evaluate things I think I know both add to my enjoyment of the story. There are some strange language choices at times, occasionally even stepping over the border into flowery or excessive, but mainly the writing is engaging and draws you through the story.
So there’s some weird stuff here, and a weird blend, but I found the writing solid and the plot workable, and the illustrated racism, both personal and institutional, just as recognizable in American society today as it was when the book was written thirty-five years ago.
Has a bit of a rough start, perhaps a bit too much build up, but once we start getting into the true time travel aspects of the story and Joshua’s survival in the Pleistocene, befriending a tribe of early hominids and being welcomed to the point where he actually takes a lover, whom he names Helen. She eventually turns out to be an early homo sapien, based on their offspring, but it’s weird for a while, uncomfortable even, as it’s meant to be, as we contemplate and observe a full romantic and sexual relationship between a human being and a hominid from a species that preceded us. That, aside from speech, he adapts more to her than she does to him, blurs the line but never quite removes it.
If there’s one thing that bothers me structurally about the story it’s the value of the project itself. I can see things as an intellectual and exploratory exercise, with the amount of knowledge to be gained about the particular period in history almost incalculable, but I’m more than a bit confused on why the not-exactly-time travel is worthwhile as a military project and warrants the huge resource expenditure involved from the military. Politically, it makes complete sense for an African country struggling to bring itself up to the standards of the developed world, but the possibilities are so limited in time frame due to the nature of how the travel is managed in the first place, the military applications seem non-existent until a hint is dropped near the end of the story.
Overall rating: 3.5 stars, pushing towards 4. The imagination, the concept, and the almost completely realistic portrayal of the main character all blend together to produce an enjoyable read. That the book makes me uncomfortable at times and tries to make me think or re-evaluate things I think I know both add to my enjoyment of the story. There are some strange language choices at times, occasionally even stepping over the border into flowery or excessive, but mainly the writing is engaging and draws you through the story.
October 31, 2014
Joshua Kampa travels back in time, first in his dreams, then in a kind of reality, where his dreaming visions allow him to access a kind of perfect simulacra of the past, all the way back in Pleistocene Africa, where he befriends a small group of Homo habilis, studying them in an unprecedented exercise in field palaeoanthropology, learning their ways, finding a home for himself after a lifetime of not belonging, finding unexpected love, hardship, bliss and heartbreak, and something else he never could have imagined.
Beautifully imagined and magically evoked with Joshua's voice of repressed poetry and self-taught knowledge alternating with chapters about how his life lead him to this unlikely place, No Enemy But Time is a novel of dreams and reality, science and myth, family and belonging.
Beautifully imagined and magically evoked with Joshua's voice of repressed poetry and self-taught knowledge alternating with chapters about how his life lead him to this unlikely place, No Enemy But Time is a novel of dreams and reality, science and myth, family and belonging.
April 24, 2021
An original story told with real literary ambitions, I admire what Bishop tried to do but must say he failed. It's okay, Mr. Bishop. I am well acquainted with failure and you achieved far more than I ever will. This book is simply far too long and the author is not quite a good enough writer to fill the pages in a manner that abolishes tedium. It's only 400 pages but I feel as if it took me 3 months to get through the damn thing; and while it is certainly not a bad novel, the end result is closer to "mediocre" than to "good." Bishop's protagonist is one of the major problems. What an irritating dork. I'm an irritating dork yet I am still capable of being amusing from time to time and, more importantly, nobody is writing a 400-page book about me. You can be thankful for that, at least.
September 2, 2015
Idea originale, storia perfetta, linguaggio eccellente in forma e lessico (almeno venti parole che non conoscevo). Una storia che trabocca di umanità in una vicenda che tratta (anche) l'umanità primordiale. Finalmente un'immagine di un'umanità preverbale (in quanto preistorica pleistocenica) naturalmente non-violenta, naturalmente sana, fatta di rapporti fra gli individui. Magico, incredibile, stupefacente. Alla faccia di chi vorrebbe che l'uomo senza la civiltà della parola fosse un animale. Imperdibile!
Leggete anche qui: http://letturefantascienzaedintorni.b...
Leggete anche qui: http://letturefantascienzaedintorni.b...
January 3, 2018
I enjoyed this book. Bishop's writing is engaging and frequently punctuated by hilarious turns of phrase, which carries it above the dangers of exposition/world exploration that are all around the narrative. his riff on time-travel is pleasantly non-technical, and sidesteps a lot of my most frequent eye-rolling objections in time-travel stories. In many ways this book is firmly rooted in the eighties, but the narrator's demand for engagement and compassion when confronted with power disparities is timeless.
July 9, 2009
Bishop's book is better than most science fictions novels in characterization and plot.
August 26, 2023
I had high hopes for this one as it was the 1982 Nebula Award winner for best novel. For a number of reasons it didn't click with me. And as I read on it gradually felt less like science fiction and more like fantasy.
The story revolves around main character John Monegal (later Kampa) who had a rough start in life as he was dumped as a baby at a Spanish US military base by his prostitute mother (his father was a US soldier), but he ends up having a fairly normal upbringing with his adopted family back in the US. Growing up, John has visions of ancient Africa and eventually is able to travel back there in his mind - a skill only a few people in Bishop's world apparently have. Well, he ends up catching the attention of a higher-up in the fictional African country of Zarakal and eventually becomes the guy chosen to go back in time in a time machine (I think) to ancient Africa for a while to see what it was like. Prior to the trip, he travels to Zarakal for extensive training from a survivalist who teaches him how to survive with the resources he'll have in prehistoric times, along with a limited number of items he is able to bring back with him.
I was confused right off the bat. Did he really time travel or was he just projecting himself in to this ancient setting? There was a time machine, but his travels continue to be referred to as projections. Even in the Coda of the book, with its explanations and wrap-ups, I couldn't fully grasp what really happened, and making it even more unclear was his final projecting experience which took place in this chapter.
There was a scene in the book when John was in prehistoric times and he faces a seemingly impossible-to-escape calamity which is resolved in a most ridiculous fashion in my opinion. I won't mention it, but even the main character is befuddled by what went on and this was never really properly explained.
There were many other "huh?" moments for me. To top it off, I found the writing to be clunky and was often times confused as to what the author was trying say.
The narrative jumped back and forth between John's life pre-trip and his experiences back in time. The chapters were relatively short so it was easy for me to keep track of what was going on in each timeline. Each timeline's story was fine I thought - the novel held my interest and I didn't feel like it dragged at all - but there were too many instances where I was jolted out of the story by nonsensical goings-on or weird prose. I wouldn't probably give this three stars had it not been for the head-scratching Coda. I think I'd probably understand this one more if I read it again.
The story revolves around main character John Monegal (later Kampa) who had a rough start in life as he was dumped as a baby at a Spanish US military base by his prostitute mother (his father was a US soldier), but he ends up having a fairly normal upbringing with his adopted family back in the US. Growing up, John has visions of ancient Africa and eventually is able to travel back there in his mind - a skill only a few people in Bishop's world apparently have. Well, he ends up catching the attention of a higher-up in the fictional African country of Zarakal and eventually becomes the guy chosen to go back in time in a time machine (I think) to ancient Africa for a while to see what it was like. Prior to the trip, he travels to Zarakal for extensive training from a survivalist who teaches him how to survive with the resources he'll have in prehistoric times, along with a limited number of items he is able to bring back with him.
I was confused right off the bat. Did he really time travel or was he just projecting himself in to this ancient setting? There was a time machine, but his travels continue to be referred to as projections. Even in the Coda of the book, with its explanations and wrap-ups, I couldn't fully grasp what really happened, and making it even more unclear was his final projecting experience which took place in this chapter.
There was a scene in the book when John was in prehistoric times and he faces a seemingly impossible-to-escape calamity which is resolved in a most ridiculous fashion in my opinion. I won't mention it, but even the main character is befuddled by what went on and this was never really properly explained.
There were many other "huh?" moments for me. To top it off, I found the writing to be clunky and was often times confused as to what the author was trying say.
The narrative jumped back and forth between John's life pre-trip and his experiences back in time. The chapters were relatively short so it was easy for me to keep track of what was going on in each timeline. Each timeline's story was fine I thought - the novel held my interest and I didn't feel like it dragged at all - but there were too many instances where I was jolted out of the story by nonsensical goings-on or weird prose. I wouldn't probably give this three stars had it not been for the head-scratching Coda. I think I'd probably understand this one more if I read it again.
May 28, 2025
Hier ist der richtige Ort, um mich über die träge und unempathische Erzählweise, das behäbige Tempo, das Nichtvorhandensein irgendwelcher Spannungsbögen (gegen Ende wird es ein wenig dramatischer, aber kaum fesselnd), die unentschiedene Konstruktion oder das ziellose Palavern in Michael Bishops Zeitreise- Traumroman zu echauffieren, der 1983 als bester SF-Roman mit dem Nebula ausgezeichnet wurde. Ich habe, auch wenn es gedauert hat, bis zum Schluss durchgehalten. Die Geschichte um den heimatlosen Joshua, der in seinen Träumen zur Wiege der Menschheit (im Roman ein fiktiver Staat in Zentralafrika) reisen und, dank eines geheimen NASA- Projekts, auch dort bleiben und Teil eines Stammes werden kann, bietet zu viele Episoden, Szenen, Betrachtungen, Sätze, die dann doch sehr originell sind, Fragen nach Spiritualität und Technik, nach Geschichte und Gegenwart aufwerfen und in ihrer Unaufgeregtheit ein meditativer Spaziergang sind durch ein forderndes Buchsind, das, durch den Windkanal der zeitgenössischen Creative-Writing-Standards geschleift, auch ein banales SF-Spektakel mit den üblichen Gegenspielern und Loveinterests hätte werden können. Science Fiction im Pleistozän, bisweilen etwas langweilig, aber doch meine Aufmerksamkeit wert.
June 18, 2025
One of the worst monkeyfucking things I've read.
July 23, 2013
Es un 4.5 en realidad. La única queja que tengo de este libro es el lento ritmo que adopta casi para el final, después de un inicio y un desarrollo vertiginosos.
Bishop ganó un premio Nébula por este libro, de hecho por eso me interesó. Desde que pasé un año leyendo ciencia ficción con un grupo de amigos, estos temas me interesan cada vez más :P
Y la verdad Bishop también se ganó un lugar en mi corazón.
Aquí no hay grandes adelantos científicos, salvo la máquina del tiempo que le permite al protagonista, Joshua Kampa, que por cierto sale del estereotipo blanco de héroe literario al ser un hombre de color y de baja estatura, viajar a este pasado tan lejano como es el pleistoceno africano.
Me dice Wikipedia que el Pleistoceno terminó hace 10.000 años atrás. Se ubica dentro de la Era Cenozoica, en su periodo cuaternario.
Aquí no hay dinosaurios como en Jurasik Park. En relación al desarrollo humano, este corresponde al Paleolítico, donde se manifiestan las primeras participaciones del Homo Sapiens.
Luego de esa aclaración, puedo proseguir. Joshua se embarca en este proyecto hacia el pasado después de revelarles a los del gobierno del ficticio Zarakal (África oriental) que tiene, desde muy pequeño, unos sueños demasiado vívidos que lo llevan a la prehistoria.
Narrado tanto en primera como en tercera persona, la vida de Joshua va desde su nacimiento en España, hijo de una prostituta muda, hasta su adopción por una familia norteamericana, su adolescencia rebelde y su posterior vida como hombre importante en Zarakal. Su vida en el pleistoceno es relatada por él mismo, donde debe compartir con un grupo de "habilinos" (el puente entre los monos y los hombres actuales, más o menos) y adoptar su estilo de vida, por dos largos años.
Como dije, el inicio y el desarrollo son bastante rápidos y vertiginosos. La relación que mantiene Joshua con el grupo de homínidos le da a una la curiosidad esencial para continuar el relato. Aunque al principio resulte confuso porque pareciera que se habla de dos personas distintas, en mitad de este ambas historias se unen y dan paso al actual Joshua y a su situación en el presente.
Ya para el final la cosa se pone más lenta, quizá como una forma de asimilar todo lo que ha ocurrido antes. Sin embargo, Bishop me ha dejado sin palabras. Realmente es mi descubrimiento del año y planeo recomendarlo a quien desee leer un gran escritor.
Bishop ganó un premio Nébula por este libro, de hecho por eso me interesó. Desde que pasé un año leyendo ciencia ficción con un grupo de amigos, estos temas me interesan cada vez más :P
Y la verdad Bishop también se ganó un lugar en mi corazón.
Aquí no hay grandes adelantos científicos, salvo la máquina del tiempo que le permite al protagonista, Joshua Kampa, que por cierto sale del estereotipo blanco de héroe literario al ser un hombre de color y de baja estatura, viajar a este pasado tan lejano como es el pleistoceno africano.
Me dice Wikipedia que el Pleistoceno terminó hace 10.000 años atrás. Se ubica dentro de la Era Cenozoica, en su periodo cuaternario.
Aquí no hay dinosaurios como en Jurasik Park. En relación al desarrollo humano, este corresponde al Paleolítico, donde se manifiestan las primeras participaciones del Homo Sapiens.
Luego de esa aclaración, puedo proseguir. Joshua se embarca en este proyecto hacia el pasado después de revelarles a los del gobierno del ficticio Zarakal (África oriental) que tiene, desde muy pequeño, unos sueños demasiado vívidos que lo llevan a la prehistoria.
Narrado tanto en primera como en tercera persona, la vida de Joshua va desde su nacimiento en España, hijo de una prostituta muda, hasta su adopción por una familia norteamericana, su adolescencia rebelde y su posterior vida como hombre importante en Zarakal. Su vida en el pleistoceno es relatada por él mismo, donde debe compartir con un grupo de "habilinos" (el puente entre los monos y los hombres actuales, más o menos) y adoptar su estilo de vida, por dos largos años.
Como dije, el inicio y el desarrollo son bastante rápidos y vertiginosos. La relación que mantiene Joshua con el grupo de homínidos le da a una la curiosidad esencial para continuar el relato. Aunque al principio resulte confuso porque pareciera que se habla de dos personas distintas, en mitad de este ambas historias se unen y dan paso al actual Joshua y a su situación en el presente.
Ya para el final la cosa se pone más lenta, quizá como una forma de asimilar todo lo que ha ocurrido antes. Sin embargo, Bishop me ha dejado sin palabras. Realmente es mi descubrimiento del año y planeo recomendarlo a quien desee leer un gran escritor.
October 11, 2017
Me ha sorprendido gratamente. Pasa a mi lista de libros favoritos.
Brillante la ejecución de la antropología. Los detalles finos, agradables.
¡Merecidísimo Premio Nebula! (no como otros...).
En mi opinión, es ciencia novelada o antropología novelada, porque meterlo dentro de la ciencia ficción no se si le beneficia (es un género con muchas carencias). Me parece que está muy por encima del género, porque el estilo tiene mucha calidad, es personal y funciona. La ciencia es "de verdad" no fantochadas sin sentido. Y la historia es creíble, cercana y entretenida.
Hay varias escenas muy emotivas que lograron conmoverme (en mi caso no es fácil: o se hace bien con muy buena ejecución… o me da grima, por lo fracasado del intento).
Es el primer libro en el que se explica con acierto por qué es en realidad imposible viajar en el tiempo. Cosa que siempre oímos, pero nunca la explican. Y a su vez es el claro ejemplo de que sí podemos comunicarnos con el pasado y el futuro.
Me ha encantado de principio a fin. Ni un sólo defecto.
Como comentan el final es un tanto extraño, pero creo que ha estado a la altura y es satisfactorio.
PD. Descubrí este libro como recomendación de GoodReads (¡gracias! Desarrolladores, algoritmos, newsletters y demás), al terminar de leer Los Desposeidos (que no me gustó nada, de hecho).
Brillante la ejecución de la antropología. Los detalles finos, agradables.
¡Merecidísimo Premio Nebula! (no como otros...).
En mi opinión, es ciencia novelada o antropología novelada, porque meterlo dentro de la ciencia ficción no se si le beneficia (es un género con muchas carencias). Me parece que está muy por encima del género, porque el estilo tiene mucha calidad, es personal y funciona. La ciencia es "de verdad" no fantochadas sin sentido. Y la historia es creíble, cercana y entretenida.
Hay varias escenas muy emotivas que lograron conmoverme (en mi caso no es fácil: o se hace bien con muy buena ejecución… o me da grima, por lo fracasado del intento).
Es el primer libro en el que se explica con acierto por qué es en realidad imposible viajar en el tiempo. Cosa que siempre oímos, pero nunca la explican. Y a su vez es el claro ejemplo de que sí podemos comunicarnos con el pasado y el futuro.
Me ha encantado de principio a fin. Ni un sólo defecto.
Como comentan el final es un tanto extraño, pero creo que ha estado a la altura y es satisfactorio.
PD. Descubrí este libro como recomendación de GoodReads (¡gracias! Desarrolladores, algoritmos, newsletters y demás), al terminar de leer Los Desposeidos (que no me gustó nada, de hecho).
August 26, 2010
Lots of flaws in this story. For one, it was hard to see why such a heavy investment would be made in sedning a person back to what was effectively a simulacrum of a period of past time, not matter how elaboratredly constructed. The concept of 'objectified dreams' was intriguing,... but as a US military project....?
Nevertheless the life of a habiline (homo habilus) band 2 million years ago is portrayed with sympathy and humanity, and the sense of what it must have been like to live with a consciousness on ther verge of developed abstreact thought is well evoked. The parallel tale of the 'time-travelling' Okampo's real life in the 20th century drags in part and doesn't alway add a whole lot to the central theme, and the end chapter, with its hint of the possibilities of future travelling, is a bit of an anti-climax. But the story is well told and its is such a bold theme it was able to keep my going right the way through to the end.
Nevertheless the life of a habiline (homo habilus) band 2 million years ago is portrayed with sympathy and humanity, and the sense of what it must have been like to live with a consciousness on ther verge of developed abstreact thought is well evoked. The parallel tale of the 'time-travelling' Okampo's real life in the 20th century drags in part and doesn't alway add a whole lot to the central theme, and the end chapter, with its hint of the possibilities of future travelling, is a bit of an anti-climax. But the story is well told and its is such a bold theme it was able to keep my going right the way through to the end.
December 10, 2014
It is a very difficult book to rate, I must admit. The rationality surrounding travelling through time is unique, suspension of disbelief is quite effortless and I did find it fascinating. Interesting protagonist and the novel is well structured with Joshua's experiences in Pleistocene Africa interspersed with chapters on his earlier life before becoming a chrononaut.
However, although the writing in some parts were poetic and had a sublime feel to it, a lot of it felt like preachy and self-congratulatory writing, almost as if the author wanted to let the reader know what a smart academic he is. It becomes really irritating and sacrifices the potential of the narrative speaking for itself.
I would have given it 3 stars, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt because all and all it still feels to be an important and unique contributor to science fiction and specifically to time travelling fiction.
However, although the writing in some parts were poetic and had a sublime feel to it, a lot of it felt like preachy and self-congratulatory writing, almost as if the author wanted to let the reader know what a smart academic he is. It becomes really irritating and sacrifices the potential of the narrative speaking for itself.
I would have given it 3 stars, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt because all and all it still feels to be an important and unique contributor to science fiction and specifically to time travelling fiction.
April 21, 2023
A novel that could absolutely not be written, or at least published, in our 'modern' times.
A white author's novel with the protagonist being a Spanish Black male? Set in the US, Spain and East Africa? No way.
So this is story that could only have been written in its time. Joshua is richly-drawn, equally split between his upbringing in abject poverty, then in a military family, and his calling to mankind's genesis, two million years ago. No Enemy But Time is written with humour and compassion. The last 90 pages though lose some of the fabulous expression of the previous chapters and I certainly missed the Pleistocene Africa that had been portrayed.
There's a huge echo of John Brunners 'Stand on Zanzibar' with its rapidly-developing Beninia, which Bishop reflects in his fictional nation of Zarakal. But really, I've never read anything quite like No Enemy But Time and it is often enchanting, beautiful and utterly compelling.
A white author's novel with the protagonist being a Spanish Black male? Set in the US, Spain and East Africa? No way.
So this is story that could only have been written in its time. Joshua is richly-drawn, equally split between his upbringing in abject poverty, then in a military family, and his calling to mankind's genesis, two million years ago. No Enemy But Time is written with humour and compassion. The last 90 pages though lose some of the fabulous expression of the previous chapters and I certainly missed the Pleistocene Africa that had been portrayed.
There's a huge echo of John Brunners 'Stand on Zanzibar' with its rapidly-developing Beninia, which Bishop reflects in his fictional nation of Zarakal. But really, I've never read anything quite like No Enemy But Time and it is often enchanting, beautiful and utterly compelling.
January 3, 2021
This is a phenomenal book. Between the literary mastery of language, solid reasoned out time travelling bits, well developed interesting characters, it is a spectacular find. It appears some people find fault with its extensive vocabulary - which for me, is a huge plus. For the non-native English speaker me, it is not a difficult reading but I had to look up a few words. For some reason, there is a general standard forming that a book needs to be written on a 5th grade reading level. Well, not this book! A supreme, superior, wonderful novel about, mostly, time travel of sorts. And life in Pleistocene among prehistoric hominids. Highly recommend to everybody who doesn't place value on 5th grade reading level.
May 1, 2013
This is a reread; I first read this when the book came out 30+ years ago. At the time I read a lot of science fiction, and this book was a stand-out. Parts haven't held up with with the decades, i.e., why didn't he take a camera into the past? Other aspects are still interesting and worth thinking about. I've read highly regarded, recent mainstream novels that are far less engaging, which make even less sense, and which are poorly written to boot; here the writing is good, and that in itself is worth something. It was enjoyable do my own bit of time travel to the past, to enjoy this book once again. It's hard for me to rate it because of the nostalgic aspect.
November 20, 2024
The lead character of this book needs to learn the phrase " Keep your penis in your genus."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews