Navigator by Stephen Baxter Search Amazon for other books by or about Stephen Baxter. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

In this, the third of four novels in the Time's Tapestry tetralogy, Stephen Baxter both rehearses the themes explored in the first two books (Emperor and Conqueror) while also adding complexity to the situation. Not only are there prophecies of the future revealed to people who have no inkling of their meaning or implications, as there were before, it now emerges that there may be two or more different agencies working from the future to change the past, in the hope of moulding human society and history at the macro-level in response to what appears to be a compelling vision. Remote in time and perhaps space as well, it is impossible for people at the time of the plot to determine whether those visions are for good or ill. It is also not possible to determine whether those future agents, including the Weaver who has been active in the first two books, conform to the precepts concerning means and ends. How should those individuals who have been privileged with this kind of secret information about how the world really works--or how it might really work or how it might have worked had there have been an intervention in the past--act? These are the issues at the heart of this book, which is in the best tradition of Baxter's work, combining as it does consideration of big ideas together with rapid movement of events and characters and the speedy turn of the centuries. Within a dozen pages of the beginning of the book, for example, the action has skipped lightly from the aftermath of the Norman Conquest and the harrowing of Britain to the build up to the Crusades in the Iberian Peninsula. Another three hundred pages later and we are on the verge of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Baxter is, as I have written before, at his best when able to focus on large-scale changes in society over a period of many years. His characters then do not get to overstay their welcome, which is a good thing as they tend to think and express themselves more or less alike and it can be difficult to identify who is who and why. Here, both the Christian and Islamic worlds are investigated and the action ranges from the north of England to Jerusalem, with off-stage action involving the conquests of the Mongols and Charles Martel's defeat of the Arab armies. It is rather disappointing to read in the afterword that Baxter used the thoroughly discredited work of Menzies as a source, although it is true to say that some more reputable authors have similar ideas but expressed in appropriate ways and with due respect to some actual evidence. It is to be hoped, in any case, that Baxter is more circumspect with his choice of scientific sources--I had been prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt in this regard until now but I may well be checking a little more carefully in future.

Readers who have enjoyed the first two books of this series will of course be keen to find out what happens next. Those who have not read those two books should be able to pick up the nature of the narrative by starting with this one, although they will miss out on some of the background. An enjoyable read for existing readers.