A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW | Reviewed by: Lilyraines
Navigator is a wonderful read, but it left me waffling a bit while reading it. A part of that may be due to the fact that it is the first book in the Time's Tapestry series that I have read (although, based on the storylines, it can be read as a stand-alone).
First, what I liked about it. I liked the focus on Spain during different eras between the late 1000's and culminating in 1492. Plus the prophecy that starts the book and how different branches of the family try to positively and negatively affect how the prophecy (and the associated codex for the "engines of God") turns out. The concept Mr. Baxter puts forth of a "weaver" in some distant future that is able to communicate with the past and try to affect how the future will turn out.
Now, for what I didn't care for as much. As much as I liked the overall story and how Mr. Baxter tied everything together, based on the title and cover art, I expected the book to be more about Christopher Columbus than it was. Columbus is not mentioned until about the last third or fourth of the book and even then appears more as a fulfillment of the prophecy - and only if Ferdinand and Isabella can be persuaded to send him one way as opposed to another - than as a major character. I do realize that there are many factors and steps between an author's manuscript and the final product that reaches the reader's hands and that realization is reflected in my rating.
I look forward to going back and reading the first two books in the series and reading further installments.
Feb 11, 2011 | 9780441015597
5 - Rare Top Pick | 4.5 - Top Pick | 4 - I Liked It | 3.5 - Enjoyable | 3 - OK | 2.5 - It just didn't click
Book Blurb for Navigator
As William the Conqueror's men attempt to stamp out the flames of rebellion, a prophecy is uttered. A bedraggled woman in a ruined chapel speaks of civilizations in conflict, armed by the engines of God...
And that prophecy proves to be true as the fearsome war between Christianity and Islam leaves its mark across the land. In Spain, a rogue priest dreams of the final defeat of Islam, for he has found a rent in the tapestry of time, a point where agents from the future used diabolical weapons of destruction to change history. Centuries later, in 1492, as men of vision weary of the strife and are drawn to the unknown West, one such explorer seeks the funding for his voyage- while a mysterious Weaver plots to unravel the strands of time and stop him.
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