RAPE, BIG WALLS & LEMON CAKEStephen Baxter writes like the stereotypical engineer. His vocabulary is mostly limited to technical language, he only uses the most obvious or clichéd of expressions and the characters are so two dimensional they feel like they a written by a 13 YO boy with an emotional IQ in the single digits. There are so many problems with this book, it's hard to find something nice to say, but after much thought I can let Good Readers know that this book has a really pretty [...]

Baxter's characters are still pretty weak, and I had a hard time keeping track of what if anything distinguished them from each other. The first half of the book was a slog, with the second half being marginally better when it came to the Trojan conquest of Northland. Baxter has a penchant for writing about piss, shit, and rape, and it becomes tiresome. I won't be reading the next volume.

This book was not as good a read as the 1st installment, which is the reason why I gave it only 3 stars. This may have been due to the fact that there was not as much geological things happening in this book and, instead, it focuses more on the people contained within this world. This makes the plot move a lot slower so it was really hard to get into and stay into the story. However, this was not the only thing that made me rate this book lower and enjoy it less. The thing that got to me the mos [...]

Im 2. Teil von Baxters monumentaler "Nordland-Trilogie" ist es endgültig zum Bruch mit unserer Zeitlinie gekommen und die Trilogie wurde zu einer "Alternate-History". Waren im 1. Teil der Trilogie, die zum Ende der Eiszeit angesiedelt war, auch schon einige Dinge, wie der Dammbau zur Trockenlegung Nordlands (Im Dreieck Brittannien, Frankreich und Dänemark) ziemlich spekulativ, man konnte sie aber noch im historischen Kontex sehen, gerade weil auch die Archäologie einige Bauwerke im Grund der [...]

The second book in the Northland trilogy, Stephen Baxter faster forwards the reader to 1150 BC, where he continues the trials and travails of the Northland communities and how they have meshed with the rest of a parallel Bronze Age Earth.The book focuses around the ancient culture and power base the Northland has become, and the Hatti Empire at it's height. As with all of the Northland books, the story is set against the backdrop of a natural, world spanning disaster which, in this case, is the [...]

There are some uncanny resemblances between this and another series I have recently read the latest book in, George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' - the exiled queen returning to reclaim her throne, the epochal battle at the Wall which leads me to feel the must be some degree of influence occurring! But no matter Martin and Baxter are both great writers, and if the ideas of one inspire the other, then they are both talented enough to do great and original things with said ideas - as demonstr [...]

I liked book 1 in the series. Not the best book I've ever read, but it had a clear plot and a problem it was trying to solve.In book 2, there are some subplots. And Milaqa is a good character. Unfortunately, that is the only part of the story that drew me in. Other subplots had unnecessary rape and violence. And it wasn't just mentioned once for backstory. It was mentioned over and over in different ways. And i wasn't able to discern why it needed to be part of the backstory at all in the first [...]

Finally over!Was genau wollte Stephen Baxter eigentlich mit diesem Buch erreichen? Ich fand die Idee hinter der ganzen Nordlandgeschichte faszinierend, aber der Autor hat es nicht geschafft interessante Charaktere, welche die Story vorantreiben, einzubringen. Fast ausnahmslos bleiben die Figuren schemenhaft, unsympathisch und sobald sie ihren Zweck in der Geschichte erfüllt haben, verschwinden sie wieder. Ein Setting, das durchaus Potenzial hat (fand ich auch im 1. Teil), aber nicht genügend g [...]

I found the premise very interesting but I was puzzled that a giant sea wall had to be built on the north side of Doggerland but not the south. I was sad to find an immense amount of brutality liberally spread through the book, with little depth of characterisation. The ideas were good, some I was not convinced by, but a lot of research into prehistory of Eurasia had been done and Baxter saw that many changes would have occurred. However I would have liked to see some effort at portraying a sens [...]

A solid follow-up novel. I thought it was mostly good, except for a couple of points. In the first novel, I thought it was a sort of alternate history of the Earth, but in this one a map at the front of the book clearly shows an early landmass of Europe and Eastern Asia.Secondly, I thought the lead character, Milaqa, was a bit frosty and hard to love as a main character. I was more enthralled with the tale of the book and peoples than of Milaqa in particular.

What an absolute chore this is turning out to be! There are good passages and exciting bits where I can read pages at a time but other sections which rely on shock value and coarse vulgarity that is frankly unnecessary, especially when you have read it umpteen times already. There is still much to recommend it but whether or not I can bring myself to try the third, remains to be seen UPDATE: Finished, phew and no, will not be borrowing the third

I read this quite soon after reading 'The Long Earth' and was expecting something with a little more brightness and humour distributed through it.Unfortunately, although parts were very well-written, I found this depressing, dark and uninspiring. I suspect it would have helped to have read the first book in the series, but I'm not sure. I found it hard to actually like any of the characters, and therefore was not as invested in the story as I'd have liked to have been.

There was too much graphic sexual violence in this book for me to enjoy the plot. The characters were slightly one dimensional, so there wasn't much detraction from the violence.This wasn't what I had anticipated, in contrast to other fictional novels that contain excessive graphic violence. However, in all fairness it is set during an intense period of strife and war. I am looking forward to finishing the Northland Trilogy.

I knowI said I wouldn't pick up #2 of this series but it was just sitting there in the "recent additions" section of the library. However. I won't pick up #3. "Alternate History" in this case means"history but I get to fudge the timelines and not worry about anachronisms" and I do't know enough about the time period to know what's accurate and what's not.

I had read and enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, Stone Spring, some time ago. I was surprised by all of the gore and violence (particularly sexual violence)in the second book. First book was not that way. Perhaps the author was trying to show how terrible things can get when civilizations fall apart?

Set in the ancient world civilizations are toppling due to drought and the eruption of a major volcano. The Northlands have lived a mainly foraging lifestyle for thousands of years and maintained a dike that held back the sea. Then they are invaded by survivors of the Greek city states.

interesting alt history with bronze age civilization, including contact with North America and water works engineering. Ultimately very rapey, like as bad as George RR Martin. Will appeal to fans of GoT.

This is a rather tedious historical slog covering lots of territory and fighting different enemies. It's too diffuse without any real character development to keep the reader's interest.opionator.wordpress/2013/0

The first was good. Didn't require too great a suspension of disbelief and had interesting dynamics. To jump millenia and quantum levels of achievement without accompanying changes in the society was a bit much. As a fantasy OK. As alternative history unsatisfying

Well I decided I like it enough- it was fast paced, epic with some good ideas. But boy, was it cruel and mean! Hard to empathize with any of the main characters as they all seemed to be flawed in some way.

Always keen on an alternate history and one with an alternate geography as well what could go wrong!A good yarn but the logistics of people/ armies moving around in a bronze age for considerable distances seems to be underplayed somewhat

Incredibly innovative-yet believable-plot. Very fast paced action.Still, I didn't feel that I really connected with the main characters or cared what happened to them. Also, a lot of the sex/violence felt gratuitous.

A long slow burn story, ends with violence and contains much barbarism. Having read its predecessor I wanted to read this book to set up the trilogy's concluding volume.

Not too bad. But in the normal Baxter way, the first book was better

I enjoyed this and will get the next in the series. Catches the imagination on how the world could've been, along with some great characters. Recommend this if you enjoy something a bit different!

Not as good as the first in the trilogy, but still enjoyable. Just kind of unsatisfying at several points.

Second volume of historical epic. Fantastically imagined and researched setting/geography, less interesting characters.

I enjoyed it and will go straight on to Iron Winter.

More excellence from Mr Baxter. Only reasons it didn't get the full 5 ? Overuse of a few words (how many times can someone quail ?) and because this book isn't quite as good as 'Stone Spring'

I love the imaginings of pre-history where the people have all the same thoughts and drivers that people today have.