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Time's Tapestry #4
Weaver
The Weaver of Time's Tapestry has finally suceeded in twisting the threads of history into a new shape; the Luftwaffe have pushed the RAF to the brink, and the invasion barges have reached the beaches of Sussex and Kent. Britain wakes up to the nightmare of the Wermacht unleashed in Southern England. As the desperate battle to hold up the invasion rages it is left to a few indivuals caught up in the panic and chaos to piece together what has really happened - is this the culmination of a plan that has taken centuries to play out, a plot from the future to change the past forever? Stephen Baxter's historical thriller series crashes into the 20th century with a terrfying vision of mechanised war and political atrocity unleashed on English soil. This is the climax of one of the most thoughful and involving series of novels that have brought history alive like no other.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
11 people are currently reading
371 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Baxter
392 books2,522 followersStephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 2, 2017
The short version first . . .
Alternative history is one sub-genre of the broader stripe that is speculative fiction. In the case of this work, Weaver by Stephen Baxter the reader is presented with the fourth and final title of Mr. Baxter’s Time’s Tapestry series. The previous titles were Emperor, followed by Conquerer and Navigator. As the titles imply, the focus of the previous titles in order were the visits by the Roman Emperors Hadrian and Constantine. In Conquerer the focus shifts ahead to 1066 with the Norman conquest of the British Isles, and finally in Navigator, the focus moves to the Age of Discovery in the last decade of the 15th Century of the Common Era. In all cases the use of sonnets provides the characters as well as the reader with a tantalizing message that has significance for each time period being examined. In t he final installment in the series ( Weaver), Mr. Baxter comes up with a mix of drugs, National Socialism, and World War II to introduce us to the character of Ben Kamen, a Jewish man, who understands the mathematics and physics behind the theory of General Relativity as posited by Dr. Albert Einstein in the second decade of the 20th Century. The unique mixture of time and space as a four-dimensional model was uniquely posited by Dr. Einstein.
The backdrop for the entire tale is a speculative invasion of Great Britain by the forces of Nazi Germany immediately upon the heels of the rout of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) at Dunkirk. In this alternative reality, the Nazis follow up the rout and retreat of the BEF, with an active and dynamic invasion along the lines of that proposed by Adolf Hitler’s Operation Sea Lion. The decimated BEF has little left to fight with regarding weapons, stamina, and even a cogent defensive strategy. It is up to the Home Guard and various paramilitary and the civilian population to mount a defense of the home island in the blitzkrieg tactics that have produced such remarkable results all over the European mainland. A German Protectorate named Albion is established in the portion of Britain seized by the Nazis and the British collaborators. Several families form the nucleus of characters around whom the conquest and subjugation occur with the British finally holding about 2/3 of the island, with the Nazi salient taking over the remaining southwestern part of the island.
The tapestry of time is created by having the character of Ben Kamen using his mental faculties bombarded by torture, drug injections, and physical confinement to resolve the equations that are necessary to “send back” the contents of the documents described from earlier times, some that have made it to the 20th Century, and some only vaguely discussed, but in the end lost to the vagaries of time and the turmoil that characterized British dealings with mainland Europe on numerous occasions. While the “Loom” is in place, it appears to be a numerically based electronic computational device which is coupled with the physical “Loom” allowing for the resolution and solution of various differential equations forming the basis of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The desire of the Nazis is focused on getting their messages into the “Loom” and sent back in time to disrupt history as we know it, and substituting instead a version of their own which optimistically would include the loss of the discovery of America at the time it occurred in the latter half of the 15th Century of the Common Era. The plan was to plant the seeds in the past so that an Arsenal of Democracy would not be possible primarily through the devastation to become the events surrounding the Great Depression and the poor response to its economic ramifications until the need of taking care of the North American continent is of more importance to the United States and Canada. The plan was to supply the right inducement to cause history to unravel with a fall of the United States to such a degree that it was never the military and political giant of North America.
Mr. Baxter is known as an adherent to the “hard science” fiction that forms a sound basis in science with its speed limits and interesting means of getting from point A to point B with the use of gateways, generation space ships, and a reliance on the closed nature of a universe that is not plied by starships travelling at many times the speed of light, where the cosmologic speed limit is 186,000 miles per second and no faster in “normal” space-time, for example. As such, Mr. Baxter uses the makeup of his characters, their talents, and their skills to work within the framework of the universe as it is understood right now, and he works very hard to keep things in their proper perspective, with the mutability of space only going as far as the subluminal speed standard and a multidimensional universe will allow him to create his stories.
Recommendations? As a “hard science” fiction adherent, I find Mr. Baxter’s work to be appealing and very believable. In this case, he does err on the side of the truth with regard to the horrors of modern warfare, with the devastating qualities that come with that assessment. There are occasional uses of adult language and adult situations, as well as several cases of descriptive battlefield and torture sessions that make this truly “hard science” with all that implies. It is an excellent wrap-up to the Time’s Tapestry series, and it is true to a fault and within the changes that the alternative reality demanded. It was well written as all his works are, and he does discuss at length about the means and usages of “normal” things in un-normal ways. It is a good read, but the topics and the language tend to encourage younger readers to seek parental help and guidance. So caveat emptor , you will probably need to exercise your parental rights in the case of younger readers wanting to jump into this series. Young adults and above should find the work engaging and interesting, and it does help to have read the rest of the series to get the full impact of this tale and its backward references to times and ages past. It is definitely deserving of my 5 star rating as it is a good yarn with a speculative fiction basis. As such it fully delivers that which you expect, at least to one degree or another…
Review of Stephen Baxter's Weaver by Richard Buro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6694495-weaver.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at please email penguin.subrights@us.penguingroup.com.
July 28, 2011
This was a satisfying conclusion to the four-book series. It wraps up most of the loose ends and answers most of the questions posed in the first three books. The fact that some questions are left unanswered is one of the things I like about Baxter. Like Arthur C. Clarke before him, Baxter knows his characters cannot be omnipotent; there are things they will never know, so we don't get to know them either. We can only guess at the larger picture and learn to be satisfied with the portions we can see and understand.
August 30, 2012
The final book. There are two emotions I have when I reach the final book in a series; joy in that it is coming to an end or sadness that the story won't continue.
Here it was joy.
The story didn't work. It was almost a stand-alone book with the three previous books not building to this final book. The revelation I was expecting fell flat.
I didn't like any of the characters.
In my view Stephen built a good story in volume one but by volume 3 (Navigator) he was running on inertia.
Here it was joy.
The story didn't work. It was almost a stand-alone book with the three previous books not building to this final book. The revelation I was expecting fell flat.
I didn't like any of the characters.
In my view Stephen built a good story in volume one but by volume 3 (Navigator) he was running on inertia.
July 13, 2018
Weaver is the conclusion of this four-book series and it's immediately apparent that Weaver is also basically a standalone book. It's almost as if Weaver had been written, but then the previous three books were written to give the story more scale so that certain events have more impact from the inertia of the first three books when described in a few bare lines.
The ending of Weaver is also far stronger given the history of the first three books; in this way, the entire series is almost like a shaggy dog joke, a long narrative supporting a single-sentence punchline.
Weaver is so much a standalone book that I almost feel as if the series would be more compelling read in the order Weaver, Emperor, Conqueror, Navigator.
In Weaver, you learn all of the answers -- who sent back the prophecies, how they did it, when they did it, and why they did it. By reading Weaver first, there would be more focus on the characters and the "how" of the prophecies; in Weaver, we live with the effects and see the characters understand how the prophecies come together and are sent, but we don't know what those prophecies did or if they even changed history (relative to us, the reader) at all.
By reading Emperor, Conqueror, and Navigator after Weaver, the story of Time's Tapestry is much less one of "who is this Weaver interfering" and more about the characters in the books and how they're going to do whatever it is that they've done; there will be more tension inherent because that's an immediate mystery.
But I digress.
Predictably (thanks to the end of the prophecy in Emperor), Weaver takes place in World War II. It all really does seem like the buildup to a punchline, and it is.
When I finished this book, it was with a grimace, because I felt like I'd been led on a multi-day trip for the sake of a juvenile destination rather than a serious parallel world story. Asimov did this many times for the sake of clever punchlines (notably in "A Loint of Paw"), but he always kept it brief.
In conclusion, having read the entire series, I would not recommend this to anyone looking for an alternate history series (as there is little in the way of "alternate" history), nor would I recommend it to a slower reader, as there is nearly no payoff whatsoever for the price of four books' worth of time.
I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing a thought exercise in "what if we could send messages to the past?" play out.
The ending of Weaver is also far stronger given the history of the first three books; in this way, the entire series is almost like a shaggy dog joke, a long narrative supporting a single-sentence punchline.
Weaver is so much a standalone book that I almost feel as if the series would be more compelling read in the order Weaver, Emperor, Conqueror, Navigator.
In Weaver, you learn all of the answers -- who sent back the prophecies, how they did it, when they did it, and why they did it. By reading Weaver first, there would be more focus on the characters and the "how" of the prophecies; in Weaver, we live with the effects and see the characters understand how the prophecies come together and are sent, but we don't know what those prophecies did or if they even changed history (relative to us, the reader) at all.
By reading Emperor, Conqueror, and Navigator after Weaver, the story of Time's Tapestry is much less one of "who is this Weaver interfering" and more about the characters in the books and how they're going to do whatever it is that they've done; there will be more tension inherent because that's an immediate mystery.
But I digress.
Predictably (thanks to the end of the prophecy in Emperor), Weaver takes place in World War II. It all really does seem like the buildup to a punchline, and it is.
When I finished this book, it was with a grimace, because I felt like I'd been led on a multi-day trip for the sake of a juvenile destination rather than a serious parallel world story. Asimov did this many times for the sake of clever punchlines (notably in "A Loint of Paw"), but he always kept it brief.
In conclusion, having read the entire series, I would not recommend this to anyone looking for an alternate history series (as there is little in the way of "alternate" history), nor would I recommend it to a slower reader, as there is nearly no payoff whatsoever for the price of four books' worth of time.
I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing a thought exercise in "what if we could send messages to the past?" play out.
October 9, 2022
Time’s Tapestry tulee viimein päätökseensä ja lukijalle selviää, ketkä tai mitkä ovat aikaisempien osien ennustusten taustalla olevat ajan kuvakudoksen kutojat. Totuus on hivenen yllättävä…
Tässä kirjassa heitetään scifi-vaihdetta päälle ja kehitellään sellainen vaihtoehtohistoria, jonka huomaa vähemmänkin historiaa tunteva lukija. Toisen maailmansodan aikaan Saksa suunnitteli maihinnousua Britanniaan, mutta Operaatio Merileijonaa ei koskaan suoritettu. Tässä kirjassa saksalaiset nousevat maihin Englannin etelärannikolle ja miehittävät osan Englantia.
Historianmuokkaus paljastuu natsien salaiseksi aseeksi, joilla SS-mies Josef Trojan yrittää raivata tilaa tuhatvuotiselle valtakunnalle ja samalla itselleen paikkaa Himmlerin lähipiirissä.
Weaver kietoo tarinan kokoon kiinnostavalla tavalla. Miehitetyn Englannin kuvaus on uskottavaa ja mielenkiintoista, kahnaukset rajalinjan molemmin puolin ja taistelu historian hallinnasta taas kiehtovaa scifistelyä. Oivallinen kirjasarja saa Weaverista oivallisen vetävän lopun. (10.10.2010)
Tässä kirjassa heitetään scifi-vaihdetta päälle ja kehitellään sellainen vaihtoehtohistoria, jonka huomaa vähemmänkin historiaa tunteva lukija. Toisen maailmansodan aikaan Saksa suunnitteli maihinnousua Britanniaan, mutta Operaatio Merileijonaa ei koskaan suoritettu. Tässä kirjassa saksalaiset nousevat maihin Englannin etelärannikolle ja miehittävät osan Englantia.
Historianmuokkaus paljastuu natsien salaiseksi aseeksi, joilla SS-mies Josef Trojan yrittää raivata tilaa tuhatvuotiselle valtakunnalle ja samalla itselleen paikkaa Himmlerin lähipiirissä.
Weaver kietoo tarinan kokoon kiinnostavalla tavalla. Miehitetyn Englannin kuvaus on uskottavaa ja mielenkiintoista, kahnaukset rajalinjan molemmin puolin ja taistelu historian hallinnasta taas kiehtovaa scifistelyä. Oivallinen kirjasarja saa Weaverista oivallisen vetävän lopun. (10.10.2010)
April 20, 2024
Nazis. How predictable.
Not up to Baxter's usual level of storytelling. The previous three volumes were better, this one felt like an afterthought that tied up the loose ends, but broke no new ground. Lighning by Koontz/Coonts did a better job of Nazis trying to change history than this, without the three-volume lead-in.
I did not hate it, but was disappointed a bit.
Not up to Baxter's usual level of storytelling. The previous three volumes were better, this one felt like an afterthought that tied up the loose ends, but broke no new ground. Lighning by Koontz/Coonts did a better job of Nazis trying to change history than this, without the three-volume lead-in.
I did not hate it, but was disappointed a bit.
April 9, 2025
Was expecting better things from the climax to the series. Not one of Mr Baxters better outings.
The reveal of who/what the Weaver is happens early. The plot of the self contained book meanders with no real aim.
Nazis and Counterfactual history dominate.
The story and series peters out with no real climax.
Disappointing.
The reveal of who/what the Weaver is happens early. The plot of the self contained book meanders with no real aim.
Nazis and Counterfactual history dominate.
The story and series peters out with no real climax.
Disappointing.
April 27, 2021
Actually surprisingly enjoyed the summation of this series considering how the others dragged on. I'm glad to have pushed myself through the previous 2 so that I could read this. A lot of dark moments but well written.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
March 14, 2021
Tied the series together, better then the previous books but would have been unintelligible without reading them.
April 28, 2022
Nice ending to the series. I enjoyed this little romp through an alternative history!
October 23, 2023
Book four of time’s tapestry. Deals with an alternate second world war, and how the strands of the other three books come together.
February 19, 2025
Leider der schwächste Teil der Reihe.
December 4, 2014
Weaver was by far the most enjoyable book I have read in this series. With that said, of the numerous characters featured only a few held my attention.
The above excerpt illustrates the blurred lines Baxter emphasized in telling the story of select English and German characters.
With regard to the prequels, this book represents a satisfying conclusion to the alternate history mystery that is at the core of the Time Tapestry series.
Due to mature themes throughout, this book along with the prequels in the series may not be suitable for children - nor hold their attention, and consequently the demographic who would enjoy this series to its fullest are young adults interested in the alternative-history science fiction genre, history buffs, and other academic scholars with personal/deep-rooted family connections to the Second World War or to other events written by Baxter throughout the series.
"George stiffened. 'I have my orders. I'm here for the benefit of the remaining civilian population. No to collaborate.'
Trojan nodded. 'No doubt that will be a fine distinction to make in the coming months.'
'I imagine it will, sir.'" - Baxter, 98.
The above excerpt illustrates the blurred lines Baxter emphasized in telling the story of select English and German characters.
With regard to the prequels, this book represents a satisfying conclusion to the alternate history mystery that is at the core of the Time Tapestry series.
Due to mature themes throughout, this book along with the prequels in the series may not be suitable for children - nor hold their attention, and consequently the demographic who would enjoy this series to its fullest are young adults interested in the alternative-history science fiction genre, history buffs, and other academic scholars with personal/deep-rooted family connections to the Second World War or to other events written by Baxter throughout the series.
November 17, 2008
DONE. the last book was a "page turner" in that I didn't have the patience or desire to read every word, so I finished it in record time. Here are my thoughts:
1) Baxter really needs to figure out how to write a story where there is a positive romantic relationship. hell, even neutral would be an improvement. It gets old when everyone is divorced or exceedingly dysfunctional.
2) I don't find Nazis or WWII particularly interesting. I think it's be really done to death, at least in the nazis-were-fanatics! kind of way. smaller stories within wars or different perspectives ok, but otherwise blah. this book as an alternative history of what could have happened if the Nazis invaded England. hohum.
3) this book only concentrated on one "story" with one cast of characters. kind of boring.
4) the final explanation wasn't nearly interesting enough. I feel like Baxter really fell short of his usual achievements. There was no "ah-HAH" point to this ending. He really could have explored alternative/parallel universes, etc etc, but he didn't. it was mostly just a war book.
the end. summation: I wasn't impressed, but I don't bitterly regret reading them either.
1) Baxter really needs to figure out how to write a story where there is a positive romantic relationship. hell, even neutral would be an improvement. It gets old when everyone is divorced or exceedingly dysfunctional.
2) I don't find Nazis or WWII particularly interesting. I think it's be really done to death, at least in the nazis-were-fanatics! kind of way. smaller stories within wars or different perspectives ok, but otherwise blah. this book as an alternative history of what could have happened if the Nazis invaded England. hohum.
3) this book only concentrated on one "story" with one cast of characters. kind of boring.
4) the final explanation wasn't nearly interesting enough. I feel like Baxter really fell short of his usual achievements. There was no "ah-HAH" point to this ending. He really could have explored alternative/parallel universes, etc etc, but he didn't. it was mostly just a war book.
the end. summation: I wasn't impressed, but I don't bitterly regret reading them either.
March 12, 2011
Vyvrcholení celého příběhu. Ve stručnosti: v alternativní realitě došlo v roce 1940 k německé invazi do Anglie. Tehdy začala skupina vědců pracovat na stroji času a odesílat do minulosti proroctví. První kniha byla věnována proroctví věnovanému pokusu o atentát na císaře Konstantina (snaha zničit Křesťanství), ve druhém pokus zvrátit bitvu u Hastingsu (vybudování „Árijské říše severu“) a třetí se zabýval reconquistem Španělska (změna v průběhu boje proti maurů) a cestou Kryštofa Kolumba k objevení Ameriky (pokus o nevzniknutí USA). Těm, kteří se zajímají o mystiku, mohu doporučit k přečtení. Jinak myslím, že jde spíše o mírně nadprůměrnou brakovou literaturu s nadměrným množstvím postav a hrdinů. První díl je poměrně dobrý, zbývající mají klesající kvalitu. Tetralogie by mohla být dobrým námětem pro béčkové seriály.
June 10, 2016
Poslední díl tetralogie se odehrává za druhé světové války, ovšem trochu jiné než jak ji známe z učebnic. Německo uskuteční invazi do Anglie a na jihu ostrova zřídí protektorát. Setkáváme se konečně s Tkalcem i Svědkyní, kteří se snažili ovlivnit historii v minulých staletích - jeden aby zajistil vznik árijské říše, druhý aby jej zastavil.
Je to opět zajímavá knížka, oproti ostatním dílům se odehrává v alternativní historii a je to tedy asi víc scifi než historický román.
Asi je tu čas ohodnotit celou sérii Plátno tkané časem - tedy je to docela dobré čtení se spoustou historických faktů. Líbilo by se mi to asi ještě víc, kdyby to autor poněkud seškrtal například na dvoudílný román, takhle je to až příliš rozvláčné.
Je to opět zajímavá knížka, oproti ostatním dílům se odehrává v alternativní historii a je to tedy asi víc scifi než historický román.
Asi je tu čas ohodnotit celou sérii Plátno tkané časem - tedy je to docela dobré čtení se spoustou historických faktů. Líbilo by se mi to asi ještě víc, kdyby to autor poněkud seškrtal například na dvoudílný román, takhle je to až příliš rozvláčné.
May 26, 2020
Fourth book of four. Nice alternate history of WW2, and an explanation of sorts of the various "prophecies" sent back in time in the previous books of the series. It doesn't wrap up all the plot points, and - in fact - leaves at least two alternate (negated?) futures that caused the alterations to history in Books 2 and 3. Taking place over a much shorter period of time and having characters continuous from beginning to end, it didn't leave me with the same sense of historical dominoes through the centuries that the first 3 books had, but it's still a good read for lovers of history and alternate history.
February 12, 2009
i <3 Stephen Baxter, and was thoroughly looking forward to reading this - the (i thought) final book, which explains the mysteries of the previous 3.
and it did, in a plausible-yet-SFnal way.
however, i dont think i will forgive Mr B for ENDING THE DAMN BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTANCE. srsly not cool.
and so i guess i wait patiently for book 5. (possibly not patiently. and with grumbling)
and it did, in a plausible-yet-SFnal way.
however, i dont think i will forgive Mr B for ENDING THE DAMN BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTANCE. srsly not cool.
and so i guess i wait patiently for book 5. (possibly not patiently. and with grumbling)
September 10, 2011
A good wrap-up of this intriguing alternate-history series. This series has obviously been extremely carefully plotted so that the four books hold together remarkably well. While some of it is unpleasant (descriptions of Nazis doing what they do best are never pleasant) the alternate history of a (partially) successful invasion of Britain shortly after Dunkirk certainly made for an interesting read.
December 26, 2009
Not as strong as the initial books in this series. While the others have a strong basis in history, this one is truly an alternative history of early WWII which I found less believable and compelling.
July 16, 2010
I unfortunately felt the final book was the weakest of the series, a bit disappointing after reading frantically to see how it was all resolved. I still recommend the series, tho, for anyone looking to explore the literary concept of alternative history.
Read
July 30, 2011An OK ending to an OK series. Stephen Baxter's hard SF credentials take a hit in the ultimately just plain silly time travel technique he picked for this. Mostly boring characters. Slightly interesting alternate British/Earth history stuff. 3/5 stars.
September 6, 2012
I have to admit to skipping pages and pages of WWII just so I could get to the end and find the answers. Not a big fan of modern warfare books I'm afraid, but still a great way to finish an amazing series
March 17, 2014
Interesting conclusion to the series. I wish the final book had focused more on the mechanisms of prophecy introduced in the previous three books and less on the minutia of living through World War II. Instead, things tie up a little too neatly, too quickly, at the very end of the book.
March 17, 2008
Like the rest of this series, larfs, if this kinda thing is your bag. Actually would be more a 3.5 for me, but I felt it was unfair to give it only 3, so "rounded up".
Who cares anyway?
Who cares anyway?
October 18, 2008
A little bit of a letdown from the first 3, but well worth reading to see what Britain looked like under Nazi rule from 1940-1943. Wait, that didn't happen. Or did it?
February 17, 2010
At last! Many of the mysteries in the first 3 books are made clear.
I know a lot of history, but I didn't know half of the stuff in these four books. Most impressive for a physicist.
I know a lot of history, but I didn't know half of the stuff in these four books. Most impressive for a physicist.
December 16, 2010
Nice dystopia
January 10, 2011
Solid finish to the series. Some very good time theory.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews