Patton's Spaceship by John Barnes

First published in 1997 ; published digitally by Open Road Media on July 8, 2014

Patton's Spaceship is the first book in John Barnes' Timeline Wars series. It did not motivate me to read the others.

A new terrorist organization called Blade of the Most Merciful apparently has no purpose or goal other than to inflict terror. Mark Strang's father has been writing a book about Blade but the bombing of his publisher puts that endeavor on hold. After a bomb inflicts severe damage on his family, Mark mopes for awhile and then becomes a bodyguard. An academic named Harry Skena is convinced that Blade has rebranded from terrorism to organized crime and is out to get him. Skena wants Mark's protection. The extended shootout/chase scene that follows, commonplace in action thrillers, seems to mark this as a pretty ordinary novel.

After reading the opening of Patton's Spaceship, I said to myself, "I thought this was a science fiction novel. Guess I was mistaken." But then Mark and Harry are whisked to an orbiting space station and we learn that the Blade terrorists are being manipulated by Closers from another timeline. Closers are so named because they visit timelines and close off all possible branches that do not lead to totalitarianism with a view to taking control of the totalitarian world they create. Since societies are inclined to choose totalitarianism as an alternative to anarchy, the Closers use groups like Blade to create mayhem, making totalitarianism more attractive. Given the course of world history, that makes a certain amount of short-term sense although it hardly seems efficient.

Opposing the Closers are Crux Ops working for the Allied Timelines for Nondeterminism who need Mark's help. So what started as a Good Guy Shoots Terrorists novel turns into a Good Guy Shoots Science Fictiony Terrorists Using Science Fictiony Weapons novel. A number of middle chapters are filled with shootouts using smart bullets and uninspired prose like "there were explosions and bursts of fire everywhere."

Eventually Mark ends up in a timeline where the Nazis have just ended their occupation of the United States. There he encounters an information dump that doesn't make for good literature but is nonetheless a fairly interesting exploration of a plausible alternative history in which Roosevelt is assassinated, the Japanese are too overextended to bomb Pearl Harbor, isolationists control the American government, and the plucky British hold out for awhile with help from Howard Hughes. Some American war heroes and scientists from the timeline we know turn out to be heroic and smart in the alternate timeline, but it's up to Mark to help them turn things around.

Patton's Spaceship varies the "intrepid hero tries to save the world" formula by making this an "intrepid hero tries to save the timeline" story, but the plot is less inspired than the alternate history Barnes fashioned. I enjoyed reading the information dumps considerably more than I enjoyed the conventional story of a hero shooting down Nazi planes with his ray gun. There's a bit more too it than that, but not much and the story doesn't go anywhere special.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS