Navigator: Time's Tapestry, Book Three - Softcover

Stephen Baxter was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957. He holds degrees in mathematics, from Cambridge University; engineering, from Southampton University; and business administration, from Henley Management College. He’s a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.

His first professionally published short story appeared in 1987. He has been a full-time author since 1995 and is currently Vice-President of the British Science Fiction Association.

His science fiction novels have been published in the UK, the US, and in many other countries including Germany, Japan, France. His books have won several awards including the Philip K Dick Award, the John Campbell Memorial Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the Kurd Lasswitz Award (Germany) and the Seiun Award (Japan) and have been nominated for several others, including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the Hugo Award and Locus awards. He has also published over 100 sf short stories, several of which have won prizes. He can be found at stephen-baxter.com.

The engrossing third Time's Tapestry novel (after Emperor and Conqueror) from Philip K. Dick Award–winner Baxter focuses on Christianity's reconquest of Spain from the Moors between A.D. 1070 and 1492. This conflict is reflected in the struggle between the English and Spanish branches of a family, both of which have received mysterious prophecies and coded instructions containing designs for weapons that could give one side power to annihilate the other. The characters' beliefs and passions shape events, but they don't know how much they have been manipulated by competing tempters from the future. By book's end, two forces emerge to debate whether Christopher Columbus will be given ships to sail west or an army to lead east in an apocalyptic war against Islam. Baxter understands how a craving for beauty and knowledge can become ghastly fanaticism, and he's also very good at showing his characters thinking within the limitations of their time. (Jan.)
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