This time, however, the time traveler has the benefit of better science, if not a better writer. Baxter clearly has a firm grasp on the science of time travel (such as it is), and, although he does tend to name-drop, he has no fear of delving into quantum mechanics, multiple-worlds theories, and other curious advances in physics. Baxter's explanations are also refreshingly clear. He has the benefit in this book of the anonymous narrator, a befuddled 19th-century inventor who is the perfect audience for Baxter's simplified explanations. And Baxter uses this opportunity to the fullest: The Time Ships is essentially a travelogue through multiple future and past histories, with notions of historical causality gloriously confused. (Book 3, for instance, is entitled "The War with the Germans." Don't ask.)
Unfortunately, Baxter focuses much more on the hard science than on the fiction. The story and the characters are little more than vehicles for his sometimes dry expositions on 20th-century physics. The time traveler in particular is a non-character. Although he voices plenty of opinions (and remains maddeningly provincial and narrow-minded even at the novel's end), he rarely does anything; rather, external events sweep him along the paths of history well outside his conscious control. The conclusion is particularly bad at doing this. The narrator, and his companions, are literally carried along to the novel's finish, with only the rare opportunity for choice.
The novel's other great weakness is its incessant attempts to relate back to H.G. Wells's original novel. These attempts begin innocently enough: for instance, to correct for Wells's underestimation of the time after which the sun will expire, Baxter proposes that mankind actually attempted to modify the sun, with disastrous results. But occasionally Baxter's attempts at reconciliation grow wearisome, as with the monstrous "Watchers" who mysteriously appear during the time traveler's journeys.
That being said, The Time Ships has some wonderful scenes in it, and its alternate past and future histories are, for the most part, fascinating. It is, however, more a book of ideas than a novel--a menagerie culled from Baxter's imagination (and occasional snippets of hard science) rather than a narrative capable of propelling itself across hundreds of pages. In that sense, The Time Ships is perhaps the heir of Wells's lesser novels, but it lacks the drive and storytelling force of its illustrious predecessor.
Copyright © 2003 Steven Wu 