The Seeds of Time
Author: Kay Kenyon
Year: 1997
Abstract:
Clio Finn is a Dive Pilot for Biotime. She's one of a select few people who can stay conscious through Dive, travelling
through time. Biotime is an organization that is trying to find viable life on other planets, thousands and millions of
years in the past, to repopulate Earth's dying vegetation. Breaking all rules, Clio and her colleagues Dive forward in
time just long enough to see the death of Earth. Their next assignment is Niang, a lush planet 500,000 years in Earth's
past. Niang hides a deadly secret, and Earth's future hangs in the balance.
| Advanced Mind | |
| Exploration/Quest |  |
| Military/Fighting | |
| Horror | |
| Magic | |
| Advanced Technology | |
| Time Travel/Alternate History | |
| Science | |
| Aliens/Beasties | |
| Contemporality |
Other books in this series:
None
Spectre's Review
This book sure started off slow, and I really had a hard time getting into the story. The characters were sufficiently
complex, although the author tried REAL hard to make these people imperfect. I don't mind imperfect characters, but I
really don't like having everyone so utterly messed up. Clio Finn is one whacked lady. Other characters are even more
whacked. Character evolution was abrupt, and often uncomfortable and out of context. It took two-thirds of the book to
figure out the plot (the real plot), and even then, it wasn't that exciting. I didn't like how this one ended, and I
don't think I'm currently interested in reading another book from the author.
The author was very good at describing things, both landscapes and psychologies. I also liked the dialogue patterns. The
dialogue matched the characters, and was quite consistent throughout the book. I liked the description of the spaceships,
as well. Things were not overly described, though. If it wasn't for the messed up characters, I might give the author
another try (but definitely not for a while).
I usually like time travel. Kenyon's technological premise of time travel seemed plausible and fascinating. However, as
is usual with most time travel stories (Ben Bova being one of the few who have mastered it in my opinion), the theory and
the application didn't work well together. However, to Kenyon's credit, she built rules for her little universe, and
stayed with those rules.
There were a few ideas I really liked. I liked the idea of plant life that doesn't just eat metal and plastics, but it
replaces it with versions of its own. I also liked the idea of travelling across the galaxy backwards and forwards
through time. That was a very unique way of breaking the supposed speed of light 'barrier' (which I don't really believe
in, but that's a topic for another time). It also put the interesting restriction on travellers that they were limited to
the path of the galaxy they originated in. I also liked the idea of having a paradoxical separation in 'cousing
realities' where one, spawned by the other, replaces the original. The idea was quite sound, but the author's
implementation failed to please me.
Date posted: 2001 01 03
Spectre's Rating
Lost one point for starting off too slow. Lost one point for having overly screwed up characters. Minus another point for
having a lame ending. Minus one point for poor implementation of a good idea.