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. ( )

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 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.
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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. ( )

One-third done. Not gonna finish it. Muddled and surprisingly uninteresting. ( )

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 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. ( )