The Company of the Dead

Gave it a good try. I enjoyed some parts of it, but generally I'm not a fan of Titanic-based stories (too depressing for me). I checked it out from my sister's library system & it's time for it to be returned, so back it goes, partially unread. Neat concept, good writing, but not totally my style of topic, so I'm not sure if I'll find a copy in the future & finish it someday or not.....

What an interesting concept. A crazy time travel story which takes place in the present and the it e of the Titanic. A marvelous What if. I loved the begining of the story, my problem came in the middle where the book really dragged. After awhile I just didn't care about the alternate history timeline. The story in the past crackled though. I would have cut a few pages out if this book. I think it would have been a tighter, faster read. I still enjoyed it but be warned if long books are not your cup of tea this one might do you in sometime in the middle.

What if it wasn’t a flying saucer that crashed in the desert in Roswell, New Mexico back in 1947? What if it was actually a time machine? That’s the idea behind The Company of the Dead. In 2012, Dr, Jonathan Wells accidentally learns about the time machine while treating a patient at Area 51 and in order to save his life gets transported back to 1911. Once in 1911 with nothing to do, Wells decides to change history and make the world a better place. First on the list, save the Titanic, but as we soon discover, that’s easier said then done. Rather then save the Titanic, Wells merely postpones the inevitable for a few hours. This small change allows some passengers to live that would have died and causes some to die that would have show more lived. And so the butterfly flaps its wings. If you have any intention of reading this book, I would recommend you stop reading this review as there be spoilers ahead. Make sure you come back and finish this review once you have read the book, I’ll be waiting.

In 2012 2.0, the world is a vastly different place with Greater Germany and Imperial Japan as the two leading superpowers with the United States divided and partly occupied. A small group led by Confederate Bureau of Intelligence agent Joseph Kennedy have learned about the time machine and Wells’ changing of history. They’ve decided they like the original version better and set out to prevent Wells from changing the past. Here’s where the story gets a little murky. Apparently there is some type of time loop in which Kennedy continually tries to stop Wells and continually fails in one way or another, this is his last chance. I found this to be unnecessary and somewhat bothersome; the story gets all mystical for awhile. One other small issue was the explanation of how the time loop started. Rather then address the paradox in any meaningful way, it got one or two throw away lines. Otherwise I found this to be a quite enjoyable book. At 832 pages it was a bit long and there were some areas that probably could have been trimmed down a bit. This might not be the book to bring on a cruise.

I received this book as an ARC from Titan Books. show less

Time travelling, alternative history adventure yarn

This is a first book by this author. This fits my 1912 category as the time travel part revolves around the sinking of the Titanic. Kowalski hits the alternative history buttons in a slightly different way –the first world war has been won by the Germans and the Americans were not involved, instead the States had a second civil war and is split into confederate and union. Playing Russia to Germany’s “USA” is Japan who are the other superpower and have occupied the Union (Samurai in New York). A whole bunch of stuff hasn’t been invented and so we get to see biplanes and airships as well as “Stratolites” (giant dirigible cities). So instead of the usual “what if the other show more side won the civil war” or “what if Hitler won WW2” we get an earlier divergence. Why is the Titanic a key to the alternative history? Well you’ll just have to read the book to find out. On the plus side the setting is very well thought out, the adventure yarn has some interesting twists and turns and there are some great set pieces. On the down side its 750 pages long and feels like around 200 pages could have been dropped without harming either the atmosphere or the story – a good editor required I reckon. Additionally it took me a long time to care about the characters who seemed quite flat.

Overall – Good adventure tale recommended to those who like alt history show less

This book has a common time travel plot: someone travels back in time, and changes things so the travelers world never happens. The details were well done, but the military thriller plot bogged and confused the story. When things were revealed added to the complexity of the plot. For example, our time traveler tried to prevent the Titanic from sinking. I thought he was part of a team whose goal was to stop the disaster. Later it was revealed the traveler used the time machine to escape evil guys. He coincidentally traveled to the time of the sinking Titanic. I questioned my other assumptions when it was revealed the time travel was not planned.

Another example: The new time line people thought the time traveler CAUSED the Titanic to show more sink, not that he was trying to stop it from sinking. I did not catch on that the new time line characters thought the original time traveler was evil. I should have, but I was not clever enough. I think knowing that fact would have added new insights to the motives/actions of the characters.

My favorite part of the book was the time machine itself. I kept wanting to read more about it, but the war battles kept interrupting. When its first appearance was described (well into the book,) I was impressed, and thought, "what a great idea!" I recall watching "America's Got Talent" and a contestant did a couple cute, fairly interesting things, but then did something truly mind blowing. During Howie Mandel's time to comment, he said mind blowing things should be the FIRST thing done. I agree.

This book may actually be better the second time reading. show less

I enjoyed this book, but it was a few hundred pages too long. The best parts for me were the beginning and end, particularly the parts that took place on the Titanic. I got a little bit lost in all the battles and intrigue of the middle section. Definitely worth a read, though, for the interesting time travel/alt history premise.

It is the maiden voyage of the Titanic and one man aboard knows exactly what is about to happen. As he hands the man on watch a pair of unusual binoculars he tells him to keep a close eye out for anything. As the warning whistles blow the ship avoids a collision with an iceberg … only to hit another one three hours later. Three hours which were enough time to change the list of survivors and thereby change the course of history.

I really, really wanted to like this book. The premise of the story sounded so wonderful, and some parts of the book were, indeed, wonderful. The rest of the story went into GREAT detail explaining how history had changed and explained the military and political reasons behind the change in equally GREAT show more detail. Quite frankly, not being up to snuff on mid 20th century American politics, this book just lost me in the details. I am sure it will appeal to some but left me dry. I was tempted to give up on this book many times but, just as I was going to put it away the story started to get interesting again. I am not put off by books with lots of pages but if I could have had the first 150 pages, about 100 in the middle and then the last 100 or so pages I would have enjoyed it much more. show less