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A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William]] [[BigBad Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
The first book, ''Island in the Sea of Time'', covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.
The second book, ''Against the Tide of Years'', sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
The third book, ''On the Oceans of Eternity'', brings with it the end of the war.
There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.
The series is tenuously connected to the Literature/{{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
----
!!Tropes include:
* AerithAndBob: As Nantucket grows more racially integrated, with lots of Iraiina and Fiernan immigrants, as well as the odd Native American, names like "Llandaurth Witharaxsson" become increasingly common.
%%* AlternateHistory
%%* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people. Of course, he's conquered and enslaved large parts of the Maghreb and northern Iberia to do so.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Sun People language. Although words themselves are mostly fine, what little grammar we see is more like English than Lithuanian (or PIE reconstructions.) "Diasas," for example, is used to mean both male and female slaves, even though it most probably would've been two distinct words (to match grammatical gender) in an early Indo-European language.
* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Marian Alston and Swindapa.]]
* BilingualBonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
* BookEnds: The first book in the series begins and ends with Ian Arnstein arriving on Nantucket and musing about its history, his personal life and seafood dinners.
%%* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
%%* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* ChekhovsSkill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when convincing the elders of Swindapa's tribe, who are basically the caretakers of [[LandmarkOfLore Stonehenge]], that the Nantucketers are friendly.
* CriticalStaffingShortage: The island of Nantucket suddenly finds itself short-staffed in every single aspect of infrastructure after the island is thrown back in time to the Bronze Age.
* DaddysLittleVillain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a [[NinjaBrat Claw of Hekate]] as well.
%%* DepravedBisexual: Dr. Alice Hong, the Lady of Pain.
* {{Egopolis}}: Walker's Alban base is called "Walkerburg." The capitol of his Greek territories is called "Walkeropolis."
* EnemyMine: Despite the antagonisom between all sides, Nantucket, Walker's faction, and the Tartessians all exchange information and work together to contain a potential epidemic that could have wiped all of them out.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Most of the civilizations that the Nantucketers encounter practice polygamy.
%%* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker]], after the Battle of the Downs.
%%* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: As the people of Nantucket work to survive their new circumstances, they quickly realize that the fact that they know how to make guns gives them a massive advantage over the other major world powers, who are still getting the hang of iron weaponry. On the downside, when William Walker defects and tries to build his own empire, he builds alliances by offering to share the secrets of gun manufacture with potential allies.
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat, and with its mass of sequels and spinoffs has even eclipsed the original in popularity.
%%* GranolaGirl:
%%** John Martins, oh so much.
%%** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
* HeroicBSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even ''existed.''
** The king of Bablyon undergoes a milder one, assuaged by assurances that Nantucket's advances were only possible with thousands of years more time than the Babylonians had had to work with, and the foundation that Babylon itself helped to build. [[spoiler: It's these assurances, diplomatically wielded, that establish Babylon as the first really powerful ancient civilization with which Nantucket is able to forge an alliance.]]
* HeteronormativeCrusader: In the first book, Marian Alston and Swindapa have to contend with a bitchy local woman who objects to homosexuality. Since Alston is the head of Nantucket's military, the woman's complaints are pretty much ignored by everyone else.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few -- the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
%%* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
%%* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The followers of the Jaguar God have this in mind for their captives.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: Some of [[spoiler:the Lisketter group]] meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]]. At one point, Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" -- the implication being that she has killed and eaten ''children'']].
* KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=]]] builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.
%%* KatanasAreJustBetter: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.
* JewishAndNerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but [[AmbiguouslyJewish averted]] in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only [[NiceJewishBoy eligible prospect]] around.
* LadyOfWar: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
* LateComingOut: Marian Alston was still in the closet into her forties, owing to her serving in the United States Coast Guard while "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was still in effect. She finally comes out in the aftermath of The Change, in order to head off efforts by her detractors to make her sexuality into a scandal.
* TheLightfooted: Swindapa Alston-Kurlelo is known for being extremely graceful. Fittingly, her name translates to "deer dancer".
%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MalcolmXerox: Sam [=McAndrews=]. He betrays Nantucket in the hopes that Walker will let him prop up the nearest African civilization. [[spoiler:This turns out to be Ancient Egypt, whose people are more closely related to the Arabs than anyone that might be called "black". [=McAndrews=] isn't exactly thrilled.]]
%%* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
* MayDecemberRomance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
* MightyWhitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. [[KnightTemplar McAndrews]] tries to do this too, with far less success.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28filibuster%29 William Walker]] when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but [[spoiler:their attempt to prepare the Mesoamericans against Nantucket[=/=]European encroachment winds up infecting the Mesoamericans with mumps and wiping out their civilization.]]
* NoBisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Plus [[DepravedBisexual Alice Hong.]]
* PerfectPoison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of [[spoiler:Walker, Hong and their entourage at the end of the third book]]. Not that they didn't have it coming.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The first sign that Walker's going to be a bad guy is seeing his fondness of the word "wog" when we get inside his head.
%%* PragmaticVillainy: Walker.
%%* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Odysseus ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled Odikweos]] in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that Hong's cult is turning into this. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire. [[spoiler: However, the up-timers need for local allies in its war against Walker means they ally with multiple empires who practice slavery as well. The Nantucketers don't tolerate it in their embassies and do emancipate any slaves they are given though. Perhaps most concerning is that industrialization using slave labor is probably faster and far easier for these empires to accomplish than industrialization with coal and oil (without massive technological assistance from Nantucket)]]
* StarbucksSkinScale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
* StartingNewLife: Swindapa leaves Alba behind when it is taken over by the Iraiina, and heads to Nantucket, where she becomes Marian Alston's assistant (and later, her lover.) She's later able to return to her people, but she's changed quite a bit by that point.
* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on. Justified by the time-travel setting. Further justified in that Nantucket's modern tech (and knowledge of it) is limited to what came with them, and after that's gone, used up or needs replacing, what can be obtained or made with bronze-age tech.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined him in Alba and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
* ShoutOut: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to [[spoiler:the Siege of Troy]] they exchange some lines from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.
* ShownTheirWork: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The second book features a scene where Swindapa and her Fiernan peers converse in their own language. Their conversation is presented in English, but even ''that'' requires a further translation, because the Fiernan language is loaded with metaphors and figurative language.
%%* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.%%And they're examples because...?
* ThemeNaming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
%%* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
* TwoferTokenMinority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts. [[spoiler: Hong's healing arts are critical to the success of his settlements in Alba and Greece, especially as their population grows. Her horrific sadism is indulged in a cult offering the worst excesses of every religion in history (and some from fiction). This cult also offers both a path to power for ambitious women and a terrifying bodily threat to any who disobey Walkers edicts or disobedient slaves. ]]
* TheWisePrince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
* WesternSamurai: Marian Alston is an African-American woman who has received samurai training.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Part of the SchizoTech. Although technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
%%* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
----
A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William]] [[BigBad Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
The first book, ''Island in the Sea of Time'', covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.
The second book, ''Against the Tide of Years'', sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
The third book, ''On the Oceans of Eternity'', brings with it the end of the war.
There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.
The series is tenuously connected to the Literature/{{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
----
!!Tropes include:
* AerithAndBob: As Nantucket grows more racially integrated, with lots of Iraiina and Fiernan immigrants, as well as the odd Native American, names like "Llandaurth Witharaxsson" become increasingly common.
%%* AlternateHistory
%%* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people. Of course, he's conquered and enslaved large parts of the Maghreb and northern Iberia to do so.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Sun People language. Although words themselves are mostly fine, what little grammar we see is more like English than Lithuanian (or PIE reconstructions.) "Diasas," for example, is used to mean both male and female slaves, even though it most probably would've been two distinct words (to match grammatical gender) in an early Indo-European language.
* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Marian Alston and Swindapa.]]
* BilingualBonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
* BookEnds: The first book in the series begins and ends with Ian Arnstein arriving on Nantucket and musing about its history, his personal life and seafood dinners.
%%* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
%%* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* ChekhovsSkill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when convincing the elders of Swindapa's tribe, who are basically the caretakers of [[LandmarkOfLore Stonehenge]], that the Nantucketers are friendly.
* CriticalStaffingShortage: The island of Nantucket suddenly finds itself short-staffed in every single aspect of infrastructure after the island is thrown back in time to the Bronze Age.
* DaddysLittleVillain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a [[NinjaBrat Claw of Hekate]] as well.
%%* DepravedBisexual: Dr. Alice Hong, the Lady of Pain.
* {{Egopolis}}: Walker's Alban base is called "Walkerburg." The capitol of his Greek territories is called "Walkeropolis."
* EnemyMine: Despite the antagonisom between all sides, Nantucket, Walker's faction, and the Tartessians all exchange information and work together to contain a potential epidemic that could have wiped all of them out.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Most of the civilizations that the Nantucketers encounter practice polygamy.
%%* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker]], after the Battle of the Downs.
%%* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: As the people of Nantucket work to survive their new circumstances, they quickly realize that the fact that they know how to make guns gives them a massive advantage over the other major world powers, who are still getting the hang of iron weaponry. On the downside, when William Walker defects and tries to build his own empire, he builds alliances by offering to share the secrets of gun manufacture with potential allies.
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat, and with its mass of sequels and spinoffs has even eclipsed the original in popularity.
%%* GranolaGirl:
%%** John Martins, oh so much.
%%** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
* HeroicBSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even ''existed.''
** The king of Bablyon undergoes a milder one, assuaged by assurances that Nantucket's advances were only possible with thousands of years more time than the Babylonians had had to work with, and the foundation that Babylon itself helped to build. [[spoiler: It's these assurances, diplomatically wielded, that establish Babylon as the first really powerful ancient civilization with which Nantucket is able to forge an alliance.]]
* HeteronormativeCrusader: In the first book, Marian Alston and Swindapa have to contend with a bitchy local woman who objects to homosexuality. Since Alston is the head of Nantucket's military, the woman's complaints are pretty much ignored by everyone else.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few -- the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
%%* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
%%* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The followers of the Jaguar God have this in mind for their captives.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: Some of [[spoiler:the Lisketter group]] meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]]. At one point, Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" -- the implication being that she has killed and eaten ''children'']].
* KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=]]] builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.
%%* KatanasAreJustBetter: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.
* JewishAndNerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but [[AmbiguouslyJewish averted]] in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only [[NiceJewishBoy eligible prospect]] around.
* LadyOfWar: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
* LateComingOut: Marian Alston was still in the closet into her forties, owing to her serving in the United States Coast Guard while "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was still in effect. She finally comes out in the aftermath of The Change, in order to head off efforts by her detractors to make her sexuality into a scandal.
* TheLightfooted: Swindapa Alston-Kurlelo is known for being extremely graceful. Fittingly, her name translates to "deer dancer".
%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MalcolmXerox: Sam [=McAndrews=]. He betrays Nantucket in the hopes that Walker will let him prop up the nearest African civilization. [[spoiler:This turns out to be Ancient Egypt, whose people are more closely related to the Arabs than anyone that might be called "black". [=McAndrews=] isn't exactly thrilled.]]
%%* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
* MayDecemberRomance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
* MightyWhitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. [[KnightTemplar McAndrews]] tries to do this too, with far less success.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28filibuster%29 William Walker]] when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but [[spoiler:their attempt to prepare the Mesoamericans against Nantucket[=/=]European encroachment winds up infecting the Mesoamericans with mumps and wiping out their civilization.]]
* NoBisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Plus [[DepravedBisexual Alice Hong.]]
* PerfectPoison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of [[spoiler:Walker, Hong and their entourage at the end of the third book]]. Not that they didn't have it coming.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The first sign that Walker's going to be a bad guy is seeing his fondness of the word "wog" when we get inside his head.
%%* PragmaticVillainy: Walker.
%%* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Odysseus ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled Odikweos]] in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that Hong's cult is turning into this. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire. [[spoiler: However, the up-timers need for local allies in its war against Walker means they ally with multiple empires who practice slavery as well. The Nantucketers don't tolerate it in their embassies and do emancipate any slaves they are given though. Perhaps most concerning is that industrialization using slave labor is probably faster and far easier for these empires to accomplish than industrialization with coal and oil (without massive technological assistance from Nantucket)]]
* StarbucksSkinScale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
* StartingNewLife: Swindapa leaves Alba behind when it is taken over by the Iraiina, and heads to Nantucket, where she becomes Marian Alston's assistant (and later, her lover.) She's later able to return to her people, but she's changed quite a bit by that point.
* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on. Justified by the time-travel setting. Further justified in that Nantucket's modern tech (and knowledge of it) is limited to what came with them, and after that's gone, used up or needs replacing, what can be obtained or made with bronze-age tech.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined him in Alba and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
* ShoutOut: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to [[spoiler:the Siege of Troy]] they exchange some lines from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.
* ShownTheirWork: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The second book features a scene where Swindapa and her Fiernan peers converse in their own language. Their conversation is presented in English, but even ''that'' requires a further translation, because the Fiernan language is loaded with metaphors and figurative language.
%%* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.%%And they're examples because...?
* ThemeNaming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
%%* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
* TwoferTokenMinority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts. [[spoiler: Hong's healing arts are critical to the success of his settlements in Alba and Greece, especially as their population grows. Her horrific sadism is indulged in a cult offering the worst excesses of every religion in history (and some from fiction). This cult also offers both a path to power for ambitious women and a terrifying bodily threat to any who disobey Walkers edicts or disobedient slaves. ]]
* TheWisePrince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
* WesternSamurai: Marian Alston is an African-American woman who has received samurai training.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Part of the SchizoTech. Although technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
%%* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
----
to:
A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William]] [[BigBad Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
The first book, ''Island in the Sea of Time'', covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.
The second book, ''Against the Tide of Years'', sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
The third book, ''On the Oceans of Eternity'', brings with it the end of the war.
There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.
The series is tenuously connected to the Literature/{{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
----
!!Tropes include:
* AerithAndBob: As Nantucket grows more racially integrated, with lots of Iraiina and Fiernan immigrants, as well as the odd Native American, names like "Llandaurth Witharaxsson" become increasingly common.
%%* AlternateHistory
%%* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people. Of course, he's conquered and enslaved large parts of the Maghreb and northern Iberia to do so.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Sun People language. Although words themselves are mostly fine, what little grammar we see is more like English than Lithuanian (or PIE reconstructions.) "Diasas," for example, is used to mean both male and female slaves, even though it most probably would've been two distinct words (to match grammatical gender) in an early Indo-European language.
* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Marian Alston and Swindapa.]]
* BilingualBonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
* BookEnds: The first book in the series begins and ends with Ian Arnstein arriving on Nantucket and musing about its history, his personal life and seafood dinners.
%%* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
%%* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* ChekhovsSkill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when convincing the elders of Swindapa's tribe, who are basically the caretakers of [[LandmarkOfLore Stonehenge]], that the Nantucketers are friendly.
* CriticalStaffingShortage: The island of Nantucket suddenly finds itself short-staffed in every single aspect of infrastructure after the island is thrown back in time to the Bronze Age.
* DaddysLittleVillain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a [[NinjaBrat Claw of Hekate]] as well.
%%* DepravedBisexual: Dr. Alice Hong, the Lady of Pain.
* {{Egopolis}}: Walker's Alban base is called "Walkerburg." The capitol of his Greek territories is called "Walkeropolis."
* EnemyMine: Despite the antagonisom between all sides, Nantucket, Walker's faction, and the Tartessians all exchange information and work together to contain a potential epidemic that could have wiped all of them out.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Most of the civilizations that the Nantucketers encounter practice polygamy.
%%* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker]], after the Battle of the Downs.
%%* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: As the people of Nantucket work to survive their new circumstances, they quickly realize that the fact that they know how to make guns gives them a massive advantage over the other major world powers, who are still getting the hang of iron weaponry. On the downside, when William Walker defects and tries to build his own empire, he builds alliances by offering to share the secrets of gun manufacture with potential allies.
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat, and with its mass of sequels and spinoffs has even eclipsed the original in popularity.
%%* GranolaGirl:
%%** John Martins, oh so much.
%%** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
* HeroicBSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even ''existed.''
** The king of Bablyon undergoes a milder one, assuaged by assurances that Nantucket's advances were only possible with thousands of years more time than the Babylonians had had to work with, and the foundation that Babylon itself helped to build. [[spoiler: It's these assurances, diplomatically wielded, that establish Babylon as the first really powerful ancient civilization with which Nantucket is able to forge an alliance.]]
* HeteronormativeCrusader: In the first book, Marian Alston and Swindapa have to contend with a bitchy local woman who objects to homosexuality. Since Alston is the head of Nantucket's military, the woman's complaints are pretty much ignored by everyone else.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few -- the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
%%* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
%%* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The followers of the Jaguar God have this in mind for their captives.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: Some of [[spoiler:the Lisketter group]] meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]]. At one point, Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" -- the implication being that she has killed and eaten ''children'']].
* KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=]]] builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.
%%* KatanasAreJustBetter: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.
* JewishAndNerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but [[AmbiguouslyJewish averted]] in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only [[NiceJewishBoy eligible prospect]] around.
* LadyOfWar: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
* LateComingOut: Marian Alston was still in the closet into her forties, owing to her serving in the United States Coast Guard while "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was still in effect. She finally comes out in the aftermath of The Change, in order to head off efforts by her detractors to make her sexuality into a scandal.
* TheLightfooted: Swindapa Alston-Kurlelo is known for being extremely graceful. Fittingly, her name translates to "deer dancer".
%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MalcolmXerox: Sam [=McAndrews=]. He betrays Nantucket in the hopes that Walker will let him prop up the nearest African civilization. [[spoiler:This turns out to be Ancient Egypt, whose people are more closely related to the Arabs than anyone that might be called "black". [=McAndrews=] isn't exactly thrilled.]]
%%* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
* MayDecemberRomance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
* MightyWhitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. [[KnightTemplar McAndrews]] tries to do this too, with far less success.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28filibuster%29 William Walker]] when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but [[spoiler:their attempt to prepare the Mesoamericans against Nantucket[=/=]European encroachment winds up infecting the Mesoamericans with mumps and wiping out their civilization.]]
* NoBisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Plus [[DepravedBisexual Alice Hong.]]
* PerfectPoison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of [[spoiler:Walker, Hong and their entourage at the end of the third book]]. Not that they didn't have it coming.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The first sign that Walker's going to be a bad guy is seeing his fondness of the word "wog" when we get inside his head.
%%* PragmaticVillainy: Walker.
%%* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Odysseus ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled Odikweos]] in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that Hong's cult is turning into this. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire. [[spoiler: However, the up-timers need for local allies in its war against Walker means they ally with multiple empires who practice slavery as well. The Nantucketers don't tolerate it in their embassies and do emancipate any slaves they are given though. Perhaps most concerning is that industrialization using slave labor is probably faster and far easier for these empires to accomplish than industrialization with coal and oil (without massive technological assistance from Nantucket)]]
* StarbucksSkinScale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
* StartingNewLife: Swindapa leaves Alba behind when it is taken over by the Iraiina, and heads to Nantucket, where she becomes Marian Alston's assistant (and later, her lover.) She's later able to return to her people, but she's changed quite a bit by that point.
* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on. Justified by the time-travel setting. Further justified in that Nantucket's modern tech (and knowledge of it) is limited to what came with them, and after that's gone, used up or needs replacing, what can be obtained or made with bronze-age tech.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined him in Alba and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
* ShoutOut: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to [[spoiler:the Siege of Troy]] they exchange some lines from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.
* ShownTheirWork: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The second book features a scene where Swindapa and her Fiernan peers converse in their own language. Their conversation is presented in English, but even ''that'' requires a further translation, because the Fiernan language is loaded with metaphors and figurative language.
%%* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.%%And they're examples because...?
* ThemeNaming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
%%* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
* TwoferTokenMinority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts. [[spoiler: Hong's healing arts are critical to the success of his settlements in Alba and Greece, especially as their population grows. Her horrific sadism is indulged in a cult offering the worst excesses of every religion in history (and some from fiction). This cult also offers both a path to power for ambitious women and a terrifying bodily threat to any who disobey Walkers edicts or disobedient slaves. ]]
* TheWisePrince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
* WesternSamurai: Marian Alston is an African-American woman who has received samurai training.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Part of the SchizoTech. Although technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
%%* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
----
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* KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=][[spoiler: builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.
to:
* KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=][[spoiler: [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=]]] builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.
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* AlternateHistory
* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
to:
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* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
to:
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* DepravedBisexual[=/=]BondageIsBad: Dr. Alice Hong, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Lady of Pain]].
to:
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* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker, after the Battle of the Downs.]]
* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
to:
*
%%* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket
* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: As the people of Nantucket work to survive their new circumstances, they quickly realize that the fact that they know how to make guns gives them a massive advantage over the other major world powers, who are still getting the hang of iron weaponry. On the downside, when William Walker defects and tries to build his own empire, he builds alliances by offering to share the secrets of gun manufacture with potential allies.
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* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: John Martins, oh so much.
** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
to:
%%** John Martins, oh so much.
Changed line(s) 44,46 (click to see context) from:
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few - the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
to:
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few - -- the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
* %%* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
* %%* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
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* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Some of the Lisketter group meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]].]]
** And at one point Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" - the implication being that she has killed and eaten]] ''[[spoiler:children.]]''
* [[spoiler: KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped - not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this, and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly McAndrews builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.]]
** And at one point Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" - the implication being that she has killed and eaten]] ''[[spoiler:children.]]''
* [[spoiler: KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped - not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this, and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly McAndrews builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.]]
to:
* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Some Some of the [[spoiler:the Lisketter group group]] meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]].]]
** And atblood]]. At one point point, Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" - -- the implication being that she has killed and eaten]] ''[[spoiler:children.]]''
eaten ''children'']].
*[[spoiler: KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to return [[spoiler:return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped - -- not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this, this]], and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly McAndrews Similarly, [[spoiler:[=McAndrews=][[spoiler: builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.]]
*him.
%%* KatanasAreJustBetter:[[spoiler: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.]]
** And at
*
*
%%* KatanasAreJustBetter:
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* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
to:
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* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
to:
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* PragmaticVillainy: Walker, very much
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
to:
*
%%* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
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* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.
to:
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* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
to:
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* WoodenShipsAndIronMen ''and'' Women. Part of the SchizoTech.
*** Though technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
*** Though technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
to:
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen ''and'' Women. WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Part of the SchizoTech.
*** ThoughSchizoTech. Although technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
* %%* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
*** Though
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* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that the Hong's cult is turning into. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
to:
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that the Hong's cult is turning into.into this. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
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* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people.]]
to:
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people. Of course, he's conquered and enslaved large parts of the Maghreb and northern Iberia to do so.]]
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat.
to:
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat.copycat, and with its mass of sequels and spinoffs has even eclipsed the original in popularity.
* [[spoiler: KarmaHoudini: Odysseus refuses to return Walker's men after Walker's death and the coup and "countercoup" that follow it. They are too useful for him to relinquish, but each made the deliberate choice to betray Nantucket and steal many of its best weapons, books, and tools while the settlement was most vulnerable and helped kill Nantucketers as they escaped - not even mentioning the terrible things they've done in Alba and Greece. Since Walker has been killed there's no pushback on this, and thus all of them who survived to the end of the war get away with their crimes. Similarly McAndrews builds up a strong enough position in Egypt that the Pharaoh refuses a similar demand to return him.]]
* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Terrifyingly, it seems that the Hong's cult is turning into. Though she does die unexpectedly there are still many other high ranking 'priestesses' who fervently believe in the cult and its tenets of human sacrifice, castration with anesthetic, live vivisection, and a wide variety of other horrific procedures. The cult seems to have taken the role of an institution where upper class Achaean women go to gain more power and influence, and Odysseus will have great difficulty in breaking their power. Normal worship of the Greek gods has continued and been formalized by the time of Walker's death, so hopefully the Cult of Hekate will become increasingly marginalized and weakened or else forced underground and ruthlessly persecuted. ]]
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* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile, Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined his service and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
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* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile, Meanwhile Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined his service him in Alba and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
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* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire.
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* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire. [[spoiler: However, the up-timers need for local allies in its war against Walker means they ally with multiple empires who practice slavery as well. The Nantucketers don't tolerate it in their embassies and do emancipate any slaves they are given though. Perhaps most concerning is that industrialization using slave labor is probably faster and far easier for these empires to accomplish than industrialization with coal and oil (without massive technological assistance from Nantucket)]]
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: A great one, sadly not picked up on. A Nantucket airship is blown way off course by a ferocious storm, ending up in modern-day Xinjiang with no ability to make repairs. Armed with the Nantucket 'shipwreck kit' of basic tools and books, they plan to help one of the local tribes in exchange for assistance in getting home. Meanwhile, Walkers last surviving, most competent, and most ruthless child escapes with the first man who joined his service and a trove of machine tools, books, loyal warriors, and technicians. They plan to make their way to the Fergana Valley, as far away from the coast as possible and with no intention to reveal themselves to the islanders until their position is unassailable. The approximate locations of these two groups are only about 300 miles apart, and as the former airship crew travel west they'll inevitably encounter those who have fallen victim to the new she-wolf. Can the airship crew escape or even fight back against someone whose entire future existence depends on eradicating them all?]]
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* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts.
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* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts. [[spoiler: Hong's healing arts are critical to the success of his settlements in Alba and Greece, especially as their population grows. Her horrific sadism is indulged in a cult offering the worst excesses of every religion in history (and some from fiction). This cult also offers both a path to power for ambitious women and a terrifying bodily threat to any who disobey Walkers edicts or disobedient slaves. ]]
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* LateComingOut: Marian Alston was still in the closet into her forties, owing to her serving in the United States Coast Guard while "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was still in effect. She finally comes out in the aftermath of The Change, in order to head off efforts by her detractors to make her sexuality into a scandal.
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A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
to:
A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William William]] [[BigBad Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
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* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on.
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* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on. Justified by the time-travel setting. Further justified in that Nantucket's modern tech (and knowledge of it) is limited to what came with them, and after that's gone, used up or needs replacing, what can be obtained or made with bronze-age tech.
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* TheLightfooted: Swindapa Alston-Kurlelo is known for being extremely graceful. Fittingly, her name translates to "deer dancer".
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* WesternSamurai: Marian Alston is an African-American woman who has received samurai training.
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* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: [[spoiler: Alice Hong's "Claws of Hekate" followers.]]
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added a missing wick
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The series is tenuously connected to the {{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
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The series is tenuously connected to the {{Emberverse}}, Literature/{{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
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[[quoteright:298:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ISOTcover_780.jpg]]
A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
The first book, ''Island in the Sea of Time'', covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.
The second book, ''Against the Tide of Years'', sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
The third book, ''On the Oceans of Eternity'', brings with it the end of the war.
There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.
The series is tenuously connected to the {{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
----
!!Tropes include:
* AerithAndBob: As Nantucket grows more racially integrated, with lots of Iraiina and Fiernan immigrants, as well as the odd Native American, names like "Llandaurth Witharaxsson" become increasingly common.
* AlternateHistory
* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Sun People language. Although words themselves are mostly fine, what little grammar we see is more like English than Lithuanian (or PIE reconstructions.) "Diasas," for example, is used to mean both male and female slaves, even though it most probably would've been two distinct words (to match grammatical gender) in an early Indo-European language.
* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Marian Alston and Swindapa.]]
* BilingualBonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
* BookEnds: The first book in the series begins and ends with Ian Arnstein arriving on Nantucket and musing about its history, his personal life and seafood dinners.
* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* ChekhovsSkill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when convincing the elders of Swindapa's tribe, who are basically the caretakers of [[LandmarkOfLore Stonehenge]], that the Nantucketers are friendly.
* CriticalStaffingShortage: The island of Nantucket suddenly finds itself short-staffed in every single aspect of infrastructure after the island is thrown back in time to the Bronze Age.
* DaddysLittleVillain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a [[NinjaBrat Claw of Hekate]] as well.
* DepravedBisexual[=/=]BondageIsBad: Dr. Alice Hong, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Lady of Pain]].
* {{Egopolis}}: Walker's Alban base is called "Walkerburg." The capitol of his Greek territories is called "Walkeropolis."
* EnemyMine: Despite the antagonisom between all sides, Nantucket, Walker's faction, and the Tartessians all exchange information and work together to contain a potential epidemic that could have wiped all of them out.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Most of the civilizations that the Nantucketers encounter practice polygamy.
* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker, after the Battle of the Downs.]]
* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat.
* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: John Martins, oh so much.
** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
* HeroicBSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even ''existed.''
** The king of Bablyon undergoes a milder one, assuaged by assurances that Nantucket's advances were only possible with thousands of years more time than the Babylonians had had to work with, and the foundation that Babylon itself helped to build. [[spoiler: It's these assurances, diplomatically wielded, that establish Babylon as the first really powerful ancient civilization with which Nantucket is able to forge an alliance.]]
* HeteronormativeCrusader: In the first book, Marian Alston and Swindapa have to contend with a bitchy local woman who objects to homosexuality. Since Alston is the head of Nantucket's military, the woman's complaints are pretty much ignored by everyone else.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few - the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The followers of the Jaguar God have this in mind for their captives.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Some of the Lisketter group meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]].]]
** And at one point Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" - the implication being that she has killed and eaten]] ''[[spoiler:children.]]''
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: [[spoiler: Alice Hong's "Claws of Hekate" followers.]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.]]
* JewishAndNerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but [[AmbiguouslyJewish averted]] in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only [[NiceJewishBoy eligible prospect]] around.
* LadyOfWar: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MalcolmXerox: Sam [=McAndrews=]. He betrays Nantucket in the hopes that Walker will let him prop up the nearest African civilization. [[spoiler:This turns out to be Ancient Egypt, whose people are more closely related to the Arabs than anyone that might be called "black". [=McAndrews=] isn't exactly thrilled.]]
* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
* MayDecemberRomance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
* MightyWhitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. [[KnightTemplar McAndrews]] tries to do this too, with far less success.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28filibuster%29 William Walker]] when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but [[spoiler:their attempt to prepare the Mesoamericans against Nantucket[=/=]European encroachment winds up infecting the Mesoamericans with mumps and wiping out their civilization.]]
* NoBisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Plus [[DepravedBisexual Alice Hong.]]
* PerfectPoison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of [[spoiler:Walker, Hong and their entourage at the end of the third book]]. Not that they didn't have it coming.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The first sign that Walker's going to be a bad guy is seeing his fondness of the word "wog" when we get inside his head.
* PragmaticVillainy: Walker, very much
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Odysseus ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled Odikweos]] in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire.
* StarbucksSkinScale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
* StartingNewLife: Swindapa leaves Alba behind when it is taken over by the Iraiina, and heads to Nantucket, where she becomes Marian Alston's assistant (and later, her lover.) She's later able to return to her people, but she's changed quite a bit by that point.
* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on.
* ShoutOut: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to [[spoiler:the Siege of Troy]] they exchange some lines from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.
* ShownTheirWork: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The second book features a scene where Swindapa and her Fiernan peers converse in their own language. Their conversation is presented in English, but even ''that'' requires a further translation, because the Fiernan language is loaded with metaphors and figurative language.
* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.
* ThemeNaming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
* TwoferTokenMinority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts.
* TheWisePrince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen ''and'' Women. Part of the SchizoTech.
*** Though technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
----
A trilogy by Creator/SMStirling, in which the entire island of Nantucket is [[MassTeleportation sent back in time]] to the late Bronze Age by a mysterious dome of light. "The Event" also brings along the Eagle, a Coast Guard training vessel--a mixed blessing for Nantucket, for while the ship and its crew prove invaluable in saving the island from starvation, one of the officers, [[MeaningfulName William Walker]] gathers a band of followers and hijacks a ship for England, where he sets himself up as a warlord among the Indo-European tribes of the area. For obvious reasons, the people of Nantucket are not pleased with this, and the Town Meeting, under the leadership of former police chief Jared Cofflin and Marian Alston, captain of the Eagle, sends a force after him.
The first book, ''Island in the Sea of Time'', covers the first couple of years, from the Event up to the Battle of the Downs, where Walker and his local allies meet the expeditionary force from Nantucket and their local allies.
The second book, ''Against the Tide of Years'', sees Nantucket facing a threat from Tartessos, a kingdom in Spain that has been rapidly "modernizing" under the rule of one of Walker's friends. Contact is made with the kingdoms of Mycenae and Babylon, and an expedition prepares to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
The third book, ''On the Oceans of Eternity'', brings with it the end of the war.
There is also a short story, "Blood Wolf", set in the same milieu, but about a generation later.
The series is tenuously connected to the {{Emberverse}}, which covers what happened in the world Nantucket left behind.
----
!!Tropes include:
* AerithAndBob: As Nantucket grows more racially integrated, with lots of Iraiina and Fiernan immigrants, as well as the odd Native American, names like "Llandaurth Witharaxsson" become increasingly common.
* AlternateHistory
* AmbiguouslyBi: Sin-ina-mati ''really'' appreciates Kathryn Hollard's friendship...
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Walker makes a remark along this line when discussing his conquest of Sicily.
* AntiVillain: Isketerol, merchant adventurer-turned-king of Tartessos. [[spoiler:When the Nantucketers invade Tartessos in the third book, they were undoubtedly expecting to find a totalitarian hellhole like the society Walker has established in Greece; what they find instead is a society which is a perfect example of FairForItsDay, as Isketerol has made literally revolutionary improvements in all areas of Tartessian society, not just the military, and has put huge outlays of time, effort and money into making life better for the ordinary people.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Sun People language. Although words themselves are mostly fine, what little grammar we see is more like English than Lithuanian (or PIE reconstructions.) "Diasas," for example, is used to mean both male and female slaves, even though it most probably would've been two distinct words (to match grammatical gender) in an early Indo-European language.
* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Marian Alston and Swindapa.]]
* BilingualBonus: If you squint really, really hard, the names of Swindapa's tribe and her enemies look a little like "Fir Bolg" and "Aryan."
* BookEnds: The first book in the series begins and ends with Ian Arnstein arriving on Nantucket and musing about its history, his personal life and seafood dinners.
* BreakTheCutie: Swindapa.
* BreakTheHaughty: Pamela Lisketter.
* ChekhovsSkill: Quite a few, but among the prominent ones, Doreen Rosenthal being an astronomer comes in very handy when convincing the elders of Swindapa's tribe, who are basically the caretakers of [[LandmarkOfLore Stonehenge]], that the Nantucketers are friendly.
* CriticalStaffingShortage: The island of Nantucket suddenly finds itself short-staffed in every single aspect of infrastructure after the island is thrown back in time to the Bronze Age.
* DaddysLittleVillain: Walker's daughter Althea, with aspirations to become a [[NinjaBrat Claw of Hekate]] as well.
* DepravedBisexual[=/=]BondageIsBad: Dr. Alice Hong, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Lady of Pain]].
* {{Egopolis}}: Walker's Alban base is called "Walkerburg." The capitol of his Greek territories is called "Walkeropolis."
* EnemyMine: Despite the antagonisom between all sides, Nantucket, Walker's faction, and the Tartessians all exchange information and work together to contain a potential epidemic that could have wiped all of them out.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Most of the civilizations that the Nantucketers encounter practice polygamy.
* EyepatchOfPower:[[spoiler:William Walker, after the Battle of the Downs.]]
* FightingIrish: Patrick O'Rourke of the Nantucket Marines.
* FollowTheLeader: various places swapping time with each other are known as [=ISOT=] scenarios. ''1632'' is the best known copycat.
* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: John Martins, oh so much.
** Pamela Lisketter is a ''very brutal'' deconstruction of the trope.
* HeroicBSOD: While not precisely a hero, Isketerol undergoes one of these when he realizes that in the future where Nantucket came from, experts aren't sure his nation even ''existed.''
** The king of Bablyon undergoes a milder one, assuaged by assurances that Nantucket's advances were only possible with thousands of years more time than the Babylonians had had to work with, and the foundation that Babylon itself helped to build. [[spoiler: It's these assurances, diplomatically wielded, that establish Babylon as the first really powerful ancient civilization with which Nantucket is able to forge an alliance.]]
* HeteronormativeCrusader: In the first book, Marian Alston and Swindapa have to contend with a bitchy local woman who objects to homosexuality. Since Alston is the head of Nantucket's military, the woman's complaints are pretty much ignored by everyone else.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A few - the king of Babylon, the Pharaoh, and maybe some of the Achaean and Trojan characters, depending on what you think of Homer's accuracy...
* HotScientist: Doreen Rosenthal.
* HotSpringsEpisode: In the third book, oddly enough.
* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler:The followers of the Jaguar God have this in mind for their captives.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Some of the Lisketter group meet their ends this way at the hands of the Mesoamericans, one almost immediately after capture since the Jaguar God followers apparently have a thing for [[BloodLust freshly-drained blood]].]]
** And at one point Alice Hong mentions that she enjoys the taste of "long pig" [[spoiler:and "long veal steak" - the implication being that she has killed and eaten]] ''[[spoiler:children.]]''
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: [[spoiler: Alice Hong's "Claws of Hekate" followers.]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler: Marian Alston, and later Swindapa. Still later, these seem to become standard-issue for Nantucket officers.]]
* JewishAndNerdy: Played very straight with Doreen Rosenthal, but [[AmbiguouslyJewish averted]] in the case of her post-Event husband Ian Arnstein -- though she jokingly mention he's the only [[NiceJewishBoy eligible prospect]] around.
* LadyOfWar: Raupasha of the Mitanni.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MalcolmXerox: Sam [=McAndrews=]. He betrays Nantucket in the hopes that Walker will let him prop up the nearest African civilization. [[spoiler:This turns out to be Ancient Egypt, whose people are more closely related to the Arabs than anyone that might be called "black". [=McAndrews=] isn't exactly thrilled.]]
* MassTeleportation: One of the Ur-Examples.
* MayDecemberRomance: Marian Alston is about twice Swindapa's age when they first meet, and then there is Professor Ian Arnstein and grad student Doreen Rosenthal.
* MightyWhitey: Gleefuly and consciously inverted by Marian Alston at every opportunity. [[KnightTemplar McAndrews]] tries to do this too, with far less success.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Students of history might want to keep an eye on any compatriots named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28filibuster%29 William Walker]] when dealing with less technologically advanced groups of people.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Pamela Lisketter's group aren't heroes except in their own minds, but [[spoiler:their attempt to prepare the Mesoamericans against Nantucket[=/=]European encroachment winds up infecting the Mesoamericans with mumps and wiping out their civilization.]]
* NoBisexuals: Averted by the Earth Folk in general and Swindapa in particular. Plus [[DepravedBisexual Alice Hong.]]
* PerfectPoison: Averted in the somewhat prolonged deaths of [[spoiler:Walker, Hong and their entourage at the end of the third book]]. Not that they didn't have it coming.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The first sign that Walker's going to be a bad guy is seeing his fondness of the word "wog" when we get inside his head.
* PragmaticVillainy: Walker, very much
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Most of the Sun People fall into this category.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Odysseus ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled Odikweos]] in the books) and a few other characters from the same source.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Several. William Walker is his own top general, and Kashtiliash and Raupasha take a direct hand in fighting for their respective countries.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Republic of Nantucket takes a very dim view of slavery, as shown by the fact that almost all of its major warships are named after Civil War heroes or abolitionists. Given that one of its most prominent citizens is a former slave, this probably shouldn't be surprising. Naturally, the BigBad, of the series, William Walker, heavily employs slavery in his empire.
* StarbucksSkinScale: A mixed race child is literally referred to as having "café-au-lait skin."
* StartingNewLife: Swindapa leaves Alba behind when it is taken over by the Iraiina, and heads to Nantucket, where she becomes Marian Alston's assistant (and later, her lover.) She's later able to return to her people, but she's changed quite a bit by that point.
* SchizoTech: Bronze axes, ultralights with napalm, katanas, breech-loading rifles, wooden frigates, bicycles, an [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]]... the list goes on.
* ShoutOut: Involving William Walker and Ian Arnstein in particular. Prior to [[spoiler:the Siege of Troy]] they exchange some lines from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.
* ShownTheirWork: Bronze Age archaeology has enough competing theories that it would be impossible to be accurate to all of them, but the series is nonetheless impressive in this regard.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The second book features a scene where Swindapa and her Fiernan peers converse in their own language. Their conversation is presented in English, but even ''that'' requires a further translation, because the Fiernan language is loaded with metaphors and figurative language.
* StrawmanPolitical: Pamela Lisketter and her group. Also TooDumbToLive -- it turns out the Followers of the Jaguar God were not interested in their help.
* ThemeNaming: Walker's horses are named Bastard and Son of a Bitch. Nantucket's ships are mostly named after abolitionists or related personages.
* TortureTechnician: Alice Hong
* TwoferTokenMinority: Marian Alston is a Threefer Token Minority, although she might not take kindly to that description.
* UnholyMatrimony: Walker and Hong, in a case where the evil whole is definitely worse (and more dangerous) than the sum of the evil parts.
* TheWisePrince: Kashtiliash qualifies.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen ''and'' Women. Part of the SchizoTech.
*** Though technically the USCGC ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327) Eagle]]'' ''is'' an iron-hulled barque, Nantucket goes back to its roots and revives the time-honored shipbuilding arts as a response to its relocation.
* ZergRush: The primary tactic of the Ringapi against O'Rourke's supply base.
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