Anvil of Fate (Meridian Series Book 4)

Meridian Series: Book IV, the Anvil of Fate, immediately explains the strange ending of Touchstone and moves seamlessly forward into one of the most ingenious and intricate time jaunts of the entire series. The project team now discovers that the Palma Event was merely a foreshock to mask and prepare for another major intervention in time by the Assassin cult--this time involving the outcome of the Battle of Tours in the year 732. If the Frankish lord Charles “Martel” does not prevail, all of Europe will be overrun by the Moors the following year and the Umayyad empire, already covering half the known world at that time, will reign supreme. Christendom itself will be largely wiped out. There will be no “Renconquista” of Spain, no Renaissance, no discovery of the New World by a man named Columbus, and no city named “San Francisco” where the project team holds forth in their Bay Area facilities. The change to the continuum is so catastrophic that the team struggles through three daunting time shifts to try and assure that Charles “The Hammer” Martel is not destroyed on the Anvil of Fate.

The Meridian Series is a set of five linked volumes comprising a quintet of extraordinary novels in the popular time travel genre. It is the story of the first ever attempt to travel in time on a rainy Memorial Day weekend set in the very near future. They soon discover that adversaries in the future are using their time theory to conduct a "Time War," and they resolve to end the conflict by any means possible.

The stories are captivating, witty at times, highly intelligent, and founded on first rate research of the history that each novel focuses on, particularly in identifying where and how to intervene to set things right again. These “interventions” are achieved by physically shifting one or more of the characters into the past, or sometimes by simply sending information back to Prime Movers, the historical figures the team identifies as largely responsible for major changes. Yet there is a new twist here. While the “Primes” are important, the Dorland theory holds that the real hidden levers on events are small, inconsequential things, like that last grain of sand that sets off an avalanche in the pile. These hidden triggers are called “Pushpoints” in the lexicon of terminology governing the time theory here, and they become the focal points of the team research.

A synthesis of plausible and imaginative time travel theory, interesting and believable characters, solid historical research, intricate and well managed plot with more than a dash of suspense with none of the old Hollywood props and standbys. The time war is waged as much in the mind as anything else, and you will not regret letting these well crafted stories slip into your head either. The stories just get better as the series develops, with an amazing hook at the end of Volume V that will have you waiting for more!