Helpful Score: 4
My only beef with this book was I wished it was longer (about 100 pages longer). It was a very fast read.. party because I didn't want to put it down. Characters are well developed (if a little stereotyped) and the story is different than you're typical PA book (although it reminded me of Orson Wells "The Time Machine" a bit). Very enjoyable book if you're a fan of Sci-Fi and especially PA.
from the back cover:
Strapped into a Temporal Displement Vehicle in 1978, Brian Chaney begins a top-secret mission to the future. He leaves behind a familiar, safe world and a woman whom he knows he could love. Arriving in the 21st century he finds a devastated world, scarred by nuclear war, with only a few survivors haunting the landscape. Intead of reporting back to his home era on the terrifying new millenniu, Chaney stays, confronting the tortured planet that his age has helped to create.
The Year of the Quiet Sun is a bittersweet, poignant tale of apocalypse and survival, told from within the ruins of a deaying civilization.
from the back cover:
Strapped into a Temporal Displement Vehicle in 1978, Brian Chaney begins a top-secret mission to the future. He leaves behind a familiar, safe world and a woman whom he knows he could love. Arriving in the 21st century he finds a devastated world, scarred by nuclear war, with only a few survivors haunting the landscape. Intead of reporting back to his home era on the terrifying new millenniu, Chaney stays, confronting the tortured planet that his age has helped to create.
The Year of the Quiet Sun is a bittersweet, poignant tale of apocalypse and survival, told from within the ruins of a deaying civilization.
Helpful Score: 1
Year of the Quiet Sun won the Campbell Award in 1976.
The plot hasn't aged well, and is certainly politically incorrect by today's standards. And the idea of time travelers from the 1970s bravely going forward to the year 2000 is ... amusing. I suppose we can now call it an alternative history.
The main character is a civilian scholar who has published a controversial book about the origins of the Bible's Book of Revelations. This creates some tension between him and the two military men who work with him on the government's time travel reconnaissance project.
The book contains an unusual time machine (it has to be plugged into an electrical source), some military action, speculation about the near future (now past), a romance, and lots of interesting discussion about society and world politics.
While I'm glad I read Year of the Quiet Sun and regard it as a worthwhile work of science fiction, this is not a book I would strongly recommend as a "must read." It may grab some readers for historical reasons or because of its specific topics. This is a very well-written book, which continually presents unexpected but logical surprises.
Who should read this: Readers interested in 1970s science fiction, Wilson Tucker, fiction set in Chicago, fiction with modernist Biblical commentary, black-white racial issues, or unusual time travel stories.
The plot hasn't aged well, and is certainly politically incorrect by today's standards. And the idea of time travelers from the 1970s bravely going forward to the year 2000 is ... amusing. I suppose we can now call it an alternative history.
The main character is a civilian scholar who has published a controversial book about the origins of the Bible's Book of Revelations. This creates some tension between him and the two military men who work with him on the government's time travel reconnaissance project.
The book contains an unusual time machine (it has to be plugged into an electrical source), some military action, speculation about the near future (now past), a romance, and lots of interesting discussion about society and world politics.
While I'm glad I read Year of the Quiet Sun and regard it as a worthwhile work of science fiction, this is not a book I would strongly recommend as a "must read." It may grab some readers for historical reasons or because of its specific topics. This is a very well-written book, which continually presents unexpected but logical surprises.
Who should read this: Readers interested in 1970s science fiction, Wilson Tucker, fiction set in Chicago, fiction with modernist Biblical commentary, black-white racial issues, or unusual time travel stories.
This book is highly rated by Brian Aldiss in his book and science fiction history and criticism "Billion Year Spree." It is also a winner of the John Campbell Award.
