Timeslide

It should be noted that "Timeslide" is actually the fourth book in this series; the first three are "All the Gods of Eisernon", "The Elluvon Gift" and "The Trumpets of Tagan." See the author's website (hint: name plus .net) for more information.

I love this book. I don't know why, it is certainly not a work of art. The SF ideas are quite classic, nothing new with the idea of time travel and the paradoxes it causes.The subject: a joined human-alien crew from a century or more in the future take a trip into the past, to investigate a crucial moment in history - the day before a one-day war between Earth and Eisernon, an alien planet, war which should have been won by Eisernon, but which was won by Earth, victory which led to the emergence of the Galactic Federation in which the two species now coexist peacefully - and also to conduct some scientific research in the Mediteranean sea and in Louisiana during WW II. Of course, things do not go as planned. The Eisernon team is destroyed before even beggining its mission and the ship's second officer, Dao Marik, is forced to take their place. But accidentally, Dao is the grandson of the Eisernon emperor which will be killed in the war together with other 12 million people... thus he will find his loyalties divided between the Now he knows and his planet, whose history he could change very easily by helping Eisernon win the war...On Earth, the teams get tangled up with Nazis, racial prejudices and aliens who want to modify history for their own purposes...Simple, no? Yes, it is. But I just loved the characters. Especially Dao Marik, but also the ship's captain, Paul Riker; the Elluvon alien which is helping the crew with the time travel - and who is reading cheap romance books in order to get an insight into the human mind :) - and the other supporting characters. They are very human (even Dao Marik, the alien :) and very real, you feel along with them, you live the adventure along with them.Timeslide is easy-reading, surely, but a pleasant one; the kind of book that would make a great adventure movie.I felt somehow frustrated, however, by lots of references to previous occurences, which were never fully developed and which would have been interesting... for example, the first meeting between Dao Marik and Paul Riker, as antagonists. There are also some historic facts that were not clarified; it is mentioned at some point that Eisernon was "rediscovered", but there is no explanation as to why this was a "rediscovery" and not a "discovery".I'm sorry that Mr. Lang only wrote three books (the other two are "The Trumpets of Tagan", which comes before "Timeslide", and "Hopeship", which comes after but which I have not read yet). I would have loved to see more adventures of these characters.