Island in The Sea of Time



A trilogy by S.M. Stirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is sent back in time to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, William Walker gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.

The first book, Island in the Sea of Time, covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.

The second book, Against the Tide of Years, sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.

The third book, On the Oceans of Eternity, brings with it the end of the war.

There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.

The series is tenuously connected to the Emberverse, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.


 * Alternate History
 * A Million Is a Statistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
 * Anti-Villain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos.
 * Battle Couple:
 * Bilingual Bonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
 * Break the Cutie: Swindapa
 * Chekhov's Skill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when
 * Daddy's Little Villain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a as well.
 * Depraved Bisexual/Bondage Is Bad: Dr. Alice Hong, the Lady of Pain.
 * Eyepatch of Power:
 * Fighting Irish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
 * Granola Guy: John Martins, oh so much.
 * Heroic BSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even existed.
 * Historical Domain Character: A few--the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
 * Hot Scientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
 * Hot Springs Episode: In the third book, oddly enough.
 * Human Sacrifice:
 * I'm a Humanitarian:
 * And at one point Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig"   
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja:
 * Katanas Are Just Better:
 * Jewish and Nerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but averted in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only eligible prospect around.
 * Lady of War: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Mass Teleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
 * May-December Romance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
 * Mighty Whitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. McAndrews tries to do this too, with far less success.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named William Walker when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but
 * No Bisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Not to mention Alice Hong.
 * Perfect Poison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of . Not that they didn't have it coming.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
 * Public Domain Character: Odysseus (spelled Odikweos in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
 * Starbucks Skin Scale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
 * Schizo-Tech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an airship... the list goes on.
 * Shout-Out: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to they exchange some lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 * Shown Their Work: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
 * Strawman Political: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also Too Dumb to Live--it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God are not interested in your help.
 * Theme Naming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
 * Torture Technician: Alice Hong
 * Twofer Token Minority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
 * The Wise Prince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
 * Wooden Ships and Iron Men and Women. Part of the Schizo-Tech.
 * Zerg Rush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.