BLOOD OF THE HEROES [Hardcover]

Blood of the Heroes (2006) is a standalone SF novel. Some centuries from now, humans have achieved interstellar travel. Humanity has also discovered time travel, although only to the past. The Temporal Regulatory Authority controls all such travel.

In this novel, Commander Jason Thanou of the Hesperian Colonial Rangers has been called back to Earth. As a retired member of the Temporal Service, he has been recalled to lead a trip into the past. The three time travelers will be carried back to 1628 BC to witness the eruption of Santorini, the most powerful energy release in history. The Temporal Service has never before sent humans back that far into time.

Jason is a very experienced time traveler. He is thoroughly used to Temporal Service methods and techniques. And he has become acclimated to the transitions effects. Of course, no one has ever taken quite as long a time trip.

Jason is a native of the Hesperian colony and is rather tired of the Earthan arrogance. The major reason that he left the Service was this attitude that Earth is the center of the universe, both socially and technologically. His boss -- Kyle Rutherford -- is a prime example of such geocentricism.

Jason will be the mission leader. Deirdre Sadaka-Ramirez will be the geological specialist and Sidney Nagel will be the historical specialist. Deirdre is a native of Mithras, which happened to be inhabited when a slower-than-light colony transport reached the planet. The autochthones proved to be insensately ferocious and the colonists were unable to leave the planet. The resulting colonial society had been very protective of fertile females, but the women have since reacted to the past by become extreme feminists.

Nagel is a native of Earth and is a noted historian. Unlike other noted historians, Nagel is physically fit enough to survive the TRA physical training requirements. An arrogant geocentrist much like Rutherford, he often appeals to Rutherford's prejudices. Still, he also occasionally incites Rutherford's professionalism by suggesting alternative procedures. Nonetheless, Nagel knows the geography and culture of that period as well as anyone available to the TRA.

Rutherford gives the travelers a tour of the area where they will be operating. Naturally, the landscape and buildings differ from those that they will be seeing. However, the landscape should be fairly close to the contemporary hills and valleys. Except, of course, for the area of the Santorini caldera and cones.

In this story, Jason, Deirdre and Nagel arrive in the TRA installation in central Australia. After briefly visiting their rooms, they are taken to the medical facilities for implantation of the Temporal Retrieval Device within their left arm. Then they undergo various forms of treatment to cleanse their systems of microorganisms that might be harmful to the people of the past.

Later, they are taught the local language by neural induction. TRA has sent an unmanned probe to Argos -- a minor town in the target area -- to record the language. Upon hearing this news, Nagel wants to suspend the trip while he prepares a paper on the discovery that the local language is an early form of Achaean Greek. Rutherford promptly puts a stop that idea.

After being completely briefed, clothed and equipped, Jason, Deirdre and Nagel are sent to an August dawn near Argos in 1628 BC. They walk into town and discover that they are comprehensible -- although with an atrocious accent -- to the locals. After spending the night in the megaron of Acrisius -- the local king -- they travel toward Lerna.

This story has the threesome make some astounding discoveries. On the road to Lerna, they are attacked by bandits, but are holding their own before the god Eurymedon intervenes. After the god leaves with Deirdre on his flying chariot, Jason takes care of the remaining bandits and leads Nagel on the rescue of Deirdre.

This first encounter sets the stage for the rest of the book. Deirdre is abducted and Jason has to rescue her. Deirdre is very upset at the way she is fulfilling the stereotype.

Then, too, the god Eurymedon is only the first of many gods in this time period. Although humanoid, the gods are obviously not human. Then Jason meets a seagod who is even less humanoid.

This tale is packed with action, usually involving the rescue of Deirdre. Despite the many captures of Deirdre by gods, pirates and bandits, the story contains very little mention of sex and that is all offstage. The violence is minor, unless one considers a truly huge volcanic eruption as violence in the usual sense.

Recommended for White fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of minor combat, historical locales and customs, and deities flying around the countryside.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Steve White's BLOOD OF HEROES tells of one Jason, who is tired of nursing academics through violent Earth history as they seek to prove their points back in time - until an expedition to observe one of the greatest natural disasters in human history strands them in ancient Greece. Now Jason is fighting for his life in this story of time travel and survival.

After reading "The Prometheus Project" and now "Blood of the Heroes," I've become a fan of Steve White's books. "Blood of the Heroes" mixed Greek mythology, history and a number of twists in this page turner that explains the real history of the Greek Gods and other historical figures from 1628 BC. I won't give away who we meet (for one thing, without the context it would sound corny), but I enjoyed running to my computer to look up some of the mythological and/or historical figures we met.
-Larry Hodges (member, SFWA)

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