The Hellfire Rebellion [Paperback]

"In this book, aside from telling what I hope was an entertaining story, I tried to convey a sense of the people and events that led to the American Revolution. In order to do that, for the sake of the story, certain events have been compressed, but with the obvious exception of those events involving my fictional characters, most of the events that I describe here actually occurred pretty much the way I show them happening."
- from the author's note at the end of the book, which then discusses the real history

"Gentlemen, the Sons of Liberty are bent upon visiting their deviltry upon us. They give us deviltry, I say we rebel against it and give them hellfire!"
- Loyalist gathering, herein

Apart from the unavoidable spoilers for THE IVANHOE GAMBIT and THE TIMEKEEPER CONSPIRACY, which introduced the main characters among the Time Commandos, this tenth volume of THE TIME WARS contains major spoilers for THE KHYBER CONNECTION (the plot is summarized by one of the participants for a medic at the end of an examination) and THE LILLIPUT LEGION (one of Dr. Darkness' free-lance temporal adjustments and the introduction of Reese Hunter), and minor spoilers for THE ZENDA VENDETTA (which introduced Nikolai Drakov) and THE DRACULA CAPER (which gave Drakov a very effective tactic to avoid being eliminated from the series by anything so mundane as death). If you haven't read those books and want them to be a surprise, shoo.

Hawke does a fine job of making THE HELLFIRE REBELLION a stand-alone book; as usual, the initial briefing of the Time Commandos involved in the current temporal adjustment mission introduces the regular characters in such a way that a returning reader is entertained just as a new reader is brought up to speed. The only series plot summary really needed is provided by A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE TIME WARS (which prefaces the story proper and can be skipped), some information embedded in Andre Cross' introduction to the story, and the spoilers mentioned above. Hawke-style historical background - the situation in colonial Boston and character sketches of the major players - is very well handled in the form of briefings to the Time Commandos and Nikolai Drakov, particularly the latter with his goal of identifying changes he can introduce to derail the course of history. An extra complication is added by the fact that the potential disruption was spotted Reese Hunter, who comes from an alternate universe in which the Revolution turned out differently than in the Time Commandos' version of history. Even granting that he's willing to exchange his cooperation for a chance to return home, can he correctly identify disruptions on *this* timeline?

Hawke does a good job of bringing 1760s Boston to life, especially the bits one may not learn in an American history class: the Justice whose library (including a history he'd been writing for decades) was burned when the Sons of Liberty looted and destroyed his house; *both* sides of the argument about regulating further westward expansion; and the double-edged issue of taxation. While mentioning the genuine grievances of the citizens of Boston (smoothly done, as men of all shades of opinion tend to hold forth in pubs), Hawke makes sure to mention the grievances of *both* sides, and to show that each side had unsavory aspects, from the Royal Navy's press-gangs to the fact that "liberty and property" was a battle cry not respected in regard to Loyalists. Sam Adams' genius for manipulating public opinion isn't prettied up, right down to the letters he wrote under pseudonyms in response to his own editorials.

And to get back to the Time Wars aspects of this, figuring out what's going on and who's who is a challenge for the players, let alone the reader. The Time Commandos have been integrated with the Temporal Intelligence Agency, complete with deep-cover agents. There are at least three illegal time-travelling organizations, ranging from simple army deserters and illegal profiteers to terrorists of various stripes. And as an added extra, the Time Commandos' own time has very advanced plastic surgery and implant educations, just to name one set of possibilities in planting ringers.

A good entry in a fun series. Hawke does have weaknesses - for instance, although time travel has been conducted on a large scale for over a hundred years by the protagonists' time, they never seem to encounter travellers from their own universe but other times. That could be excused, however; the situation is complicated enough, and the whole point of this particular story is that it's set far enough in advance of the Revolutionary War that the War could be averted, so an ordinary arbitration conflict from years past wouldn't be set there. On the plus side, time travel has dangers and complications, and more uses than the simple one of getting all the characters in place.

"If he wanted to, he could've hidden ordnance all over Boston."
"He probably has. Wouldn't you?"
- herein

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