Book Review: The Ocean of Years

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Ocean of Years     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Roger MacBride Allen
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Series: Chronicles of Solace # 2
Bantam, July 2002, $6.50, 464 pp.

In the far distant future, mankind has been able to terraform whole planets so that humans could colonize them. Oskar DeSilvo is credited as the genius who brought this process about but Anton Koffield declares that the terraforming project is breaking down and if they don’t evacuate the planet millions will die.

Although the authorities have proof that DeSilvo is still alive and has technologies that will save mankind, the authorities want proof that the terraforming project is imperfect. Koffield and his associates travel through a time wormhole one hundred years in the past to locate DeSilvo, get the technology, including the FTL drive and save the future. Koffield also wants vengeance on the man who destroyed his career.

THE OCEAN OF YEARS is high tech science fiction at its very best. The time travel operation, intricate to the story line, is both easy to understand and makes sense even if one is not a quantum physicist. The hero is a driven man, whom seems to place honor above all else, making him the implacable enemy of the antagonist. Yet it is his thirst for vengeance that ultimately leaves readers to wonder whether humanity will survive (at least this novel). Fans of Arthur C. Clarke will love this book.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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