Author:	Kay Kenyon
Copyright:	1997
Date Reviewed:	6/24/01
Rating:	5.5

Synopsis: Clio Finn is a Drive pilot. With most of Earth's plant life dying off, new sources of flora must be found. Humans do not yet know how to travel Faster Than Light (FTL) so direct travel to the stars is impossible. However, they can Dive into the past. When they do, they remain in absolute space and the galaxy revolves around them. All they have to do is come out of Dive near a star with a suitable planet, and then go to the planet using ordinary rockets. Most humans can not remain awake during Dive. Only a few can and these are valuable as Dive Pilots. However, each Dive becomes harder and harder and eventually they burn out. They are given good desk jobs but they can never fly again, which is very traumatic. Clio's latest mission is her 55th which is more than anyone else has done. She takes illegal drugs to keep her going but on this mission she falls asleep and the ship nearly crashes into a moon. The mission is aborted but since there are not enough Dive pilots, Clio is not punished.

During a brief vacation on Earth, Clio, her friend Hillis, and a new crew member Peter, find that replanting is not working. The plants from the most successful Biotime mission are dying. They are attacked by Biotime because someone doesn't want them to know how bad the situation really is. On their next mission, the three crew members conspire to go forward a few decades to learn the immediate fate of the Earth and hear a last radio report of it's impending death.

However, Niang, the planet they Dive back in time to, turns out to be a wonderful Earth like haven. The away team, which includes our three crew members, visit the plant and finds many animals. The camp is vandalized, showing that there is some kind of intelligent life here. While in the forest, Clio finds an alien ship that is being devoured by plant life. It is hard to tell when the plants begin and the ship ends. It is an incredibly important find but Clio decides not to report it. The two mission commanders, Teeg & Possie becomes control freaks. Half the crew go crazy and almost the entire away mission is killed in the fighting. Clio and Peter make it safely back to the mother ship.

On the way home, the ship begins to fall apart from planet biota attacking the most critical systems in the ships. The remaining crew is split over dumping the biota or bringing it back to Earth. Even though this super-adaptive biota will destroy all technology, some believe it is better than a slow death. Captain Russo sides with Clio and Peter and the remaining crew is killed in the fighting. Fearing what they might do, Earth sends a destroyer out to destroy the ship before it can infect Earth. The Captain orders the ship backward in time to a few days to escape and they barley make it back to Earth in a lander.

In Part II we learn that Captain Russo and Peter were killed when the forest they landed in was firebombed to eliminate any traces of the foreign plant. Clio was captured and placed in a quarantine facility reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps. Eventually she is released by Colonel Tandy. Tandy wants her to Dive pilot a ship one more time back to Niang. He has learned of the discovery of the alien ship and believes it contains the secret of FTL travel. Other missions have failed to find the ship because someone or something has killed them. Colonel Tandy is going back to Niang with a small army contingent. Everyone assumes that the mutineers were responsible for the latest deaths. To entice her, Colonel Tandy has brought along her retarded brother, Petya, whom she hasn't seen for many years. Also on this mission is Timothy Ashe who attempts to befriend Clio. While searching for the alien ship, the away team is ambushed and most are killed. Clio and Timothy are captured by the deranged Teeg who tells Clio that he has discovered the secret of FTL. Eventually Teeg is killed and Timothy reveals himself to be from a Cousin Reality where Earth was successfully seeded by Niang biota. The alien ship is from their home and his team's mission is to stop Tandy from finding FTL. Timothy's people were responsible for most of the deaths on Niang. Only one reality can prosper and without FTL, Clio's will wither and die. Timothy convinces Clio that his is the best reality. She kills Tandy and steals the FTL secret. She may live on in Timothy's reality. Or not.

Review. "The Seeds of Time" is a very bad novel. Through most of it I kept looking at the last page number hope it would be less. Each time it looked like the plot should be over, something else in the story kept it going. Books I and II could have been separate novels. Then I wouldn't have bothered with the second. The most disappointing aspect of the novel was that everyone was mean and bitter, eager to hurt or kill anyone who got in their way. The hate level was off the scale, making it difficult to sympathize with anyone. Most of the men are sex-crazed characatures. The author must really hate men. There were several gaping holes in the plot that were never explained. Why would so many crew members of the Niang away mission go crazy? That just wouldn't happen unless they were being manipulated, for which there was no evidence. Clio finds the first evidence of alien technology but decides not to tell anyone. In what universe would that happen? If there is a sequel I will be sure to stay away from it