Timeweb Chronicles Series by Brian Herbert
Timeweb Chronicles #1
The Timeweb Chronicles: Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus
Brian Herbert
Timeweb Chronicles. In Timeweb, Brian Herbert creates a universe of wondrous possibilities that is populated by sentient spaceships, shapeshifters, intriguing robots, and miniature aliens with mysterious powers. Humanity has become a mercantile society that has spread throughout the galaxy, ruled by wealthy merchant princes who live in decadent splendor—entirely unaware of another realm just beneath the fabric of the universe. When galactic ecologist Noah Watanabe discovers the cause of a strange, cosmic disintegration, he embarks on an epic journey to restore the ancient balance to the crumbling galaxy. Noah must work with warring, alien races to unlock the secrets to a vast celestial puzzle. The Web and the Stars—The web is unraveling, threatening to plunge the universe into oblivion. Galactic ecologist Noah Watanabe is struggling to hold the cosmic filigree together, while the evil shapeshifter race of Mutatis threatens to use a doomsday weapon against humanity. Noah has his own paranormal ability to journey into the depths of the universe, but he has made enemies of his own, including a third powerful force determined to destroy humans and Mutatis alike. Webdancers—The conclusion to Brian Herbert’s epic Timeweb trilogy. As the human race and the sinister shape-shifting Mutatis continue their epic war, the connecting filigree of Timeweb strands that hold the universe together, begins to unravel. Sentient podships travel the strands of the web, but the cosmos itself is disintegrating. Galactic ecologist Noah Watanabe, possessed of special powers, is the one person who has a chance of saving all races. He is immortal, and faced with the crisis to the universe, he is also evolving, changing both mentally and physically … but into what? Noah is swept on a tidal wave of destiny and knows there is no turning back.
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Timeweb Chronicles #2
The Web and the Stars
Brian Herbert
From Publishers WeeklyIn the sequel to Timeweb (2006), bestseller Herbert (Sandworms of Dune) offers readers a space opera where interstellar travel is mostly embargoed and characters spend over a third of the book in solitary self-reflection. When the alien Parvii cut two empires off from the podship networks, the Parvii derail a war between humankind and the shape-shifting Mutati and forcibly separate many members of Herbert's large cast. Frequent viewpoint shifts and lengthy stretches of internal monologue make character development all but impossible. Neither guerrilla mystic Noah Watanabe nor his nemesis, Doge Lorenzo, are more than cartoon archetypes, and hardly anyone else has enough time onstage to acquire much depth. The short chapters also create an odd tonal dissonance, with heavy-handed philosophical musing regularly interrupted by crisp plot newsbreaks. Pacing improves somewhat in the book's second half (a grisly torture sequence marks the turning point), but in the end, ideas are spread too thin and most characters drawn too broadly to lift the novel above pulp-era comic strip quality. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Timeweb Chronicles #3
Webdancers
Brian Herbert
From Publishers WeeklyThe third Timeweb Chronicles space fantasy episode (after 2007's The Web and the Stars) concludes eco-warrior Noah Watanabe's personal journey. Watanabe has unprecedented access to the disintegrating Timeweb that spans the universe, but interaction with it begins to change him into something more than human. Meanwhile, the threat of the mysterious Hib-Adu Coalition unites the human Merchant Prince Alliance and the shape-shifters of the Mutati Kingdom in common cause. As the political situation and the Timeweb decay, Watanabe struggles to protect his people from the forces imprisoned within the Web. Only diehard fans will last to the end of the novel, which suffers from clunky writing, a plethora of sketchy characters, a confusing plot, stakes so high as to be meaningless and a pace alternately breathless and leaden. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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