Emperor - (Time's Tapestry) by Stephen Baxter (Paperback)

About the Book

A Celtic noble betrays his people and sides with the conquering Roman legions--all because of a prophecy that reveals secrets about the world that is to come. A multigenerational story of how an idea can change the parameters of human existence.--S.M. Stirling.

Book Synopsis

The first novel in Stephen Baxter's acclaimed Time's Tapestry series.

"EPIC HISTORICAL FICTION laced with a science fiction premise...a vividly convincing picture of a past world."--SFX

It is The Prophecy. Inscribed in Latin, the ancient scroll has resided in the hands of a single family for generations, revealing secrets about the world that is to come, and guiding them to wealth and power. It begins when a Celtic noble betrays his people at the behest of his mother's belief in The Prophecy--and sides with the conquering Roman legions.

For the next 400 years, Britannia thrives, as does the family while Rome rules over the island. But loyalties are torn when Constantine, most powerful Emperor of them all, comes to Britannia.

And even as the sun begins to set on the Roman Empire, the Prophecy is renewed--a message from an unknowable future promising the world to those who can decipher its cryptic words...

Review Quotes

"Baxter produces something new and subtly different in the time travel genre. A multi-generational story of how an idea can permeate time and change the parameters of human existence...with a large cast of Romans, ancient Britons, and colorful settings."--S. M. Stirling

"Epic historical fiction laced with a science fiction premise...a vividly convincing picture of a past world."--SFX

"Strong imagination and a capacity for awe abound in the work of Stephen Baxter."--The London Times Literary Supplement

"Formally audacious, constantly surprising, clinically subversive of the genre norms, cosmic irony always at hand to awe and undercut the reader."--Locus

"Baxter at his best."--The Guardian (London)

About the Author

Stephen Baxter, author of the space duology featuring Proxima and Ultima, is the national bestselling author of Ark and Flood. He is a winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for the best alternate history novel of the year, and he won the Philip K. Dick Award twice, for The Time Ships and for Vacuum Diagrams. He was also a recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for The Time Ships.