NO ENEMY BUT TIME
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Michael Bishop
Joshua Kampa, the illegitimate son of a mute Spanish whore and a black serviceman, has always dreamed of Africa. But his dreams are of an Africa far in the past and are so vivid and in such hallucinatory detail that he is able to question the understanding of eminent paleontologists. As a result, Joshua is invited to join a most unusual time travel project and is transported millions of years into the past of his dreams. In early Pleistocene Africa, living among the pre-human species Homo habilis, experiencing the same hardships and the same intense pleasures, Joshua finds, for the first time in his troubled life, not only contentment but real love--a love that transcends almost everything. Intelligent, thoughtful and deeply moving, No Enemy but Time brilliantly evokes the remote past and, at the same time, presents a powerful and convincing portrayal of a relationship surmounting even the most daunting barriers. It is a challenging and highly original novel exploring the nature a nd origins of humankind.
Click here to see all other titles in the Michael Bishop collection.
- August 2022 978-1-933846-19-4
- Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Revised Fortieth Anniversary Edition, trade paperback
- Order below, or buy print or ebook of this title from these from these dealers
Joshua Kampa, the illegitimate son of a mute Spanish whore and a black serviceman, has always dreamed of Africa. But his dreams are of an Africa far in the past and are so vivid and in such hallucinatory detail that he is able to question the understanding of eminent paleontologists. As a result, Joshua is invited to join a most unusual time travel project and is transported millions of years into the past of his dreams. In early Pleistocene Africa, living among the pre-human species Homo habilis, experiencing the same hardships and the same intense pleasures, Joshua finds, for the first time in his troubled life, not only contentment but real love--a love that transcends almost everything. Intelligent, thoughtful and deeply moving, No Enemy but Time brilliantly evokes the remote past and, at the same time, presents a powerful and convincing portrayal of a relationship surmounting even the most daunting barriers. It is a challenging and highly original novel exploring the nature a nd origins of humankind.
Click here to see all other titles in the Michael Bishop collection.
"This novel wears its (prehistoric) age well! As beautiful and transporting today as it was when it took home the Nebula in 1982, I hope this finds its way into the hands of a whole new generation of readers. The new edition is a gift, just as its author, the marvelous Michael Bishop, has always been."
— Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
"Michael Bishop's work is seminal for any writer, no matter what genre. This incredible, moving novel of interspecies contact is an astonishing achievement."
— Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
"No Enemy but Time is a thought-provoking novel about humanity’s pre-human past, its all-too-human present, and the two’s relationship toward humanity’s future. The story is realized via vividly depicted scenes from pre-history and the puzzlingly human story of Joshua Kempa. Bishop does a masterful job relaying what life 2 million years ago in Africa might have been like, and combines it with a poignantly real present-day narrative (at least as it stood in the 1980s) describing the life of one man caught in the interstices of culture, place, dream, and identity. The result: an intelligent, complex story impossible to classify except as something liminally science fiction. No Enemy but Time is one of those books that reveals new layers with each fresh realization, a sublimely bittersweet vision that transcends the page.
— Fantasy Literature
“This odyssey into our African prehistoric past is a surprise and a delight—exciting, witty and touching.”
— Ian Watson
“An awesome tale of a time-traveler’s journey into the prehistoric past. A major novel.”
— Norman Spinrad
“If we’re lucky, SF each year seems to generate a single major novel that successfully combines science, people, and artful fiction. This [is] Michael Bishop's turn. No Enemy but Time is topnotch.”
— Edward Bryant
“Michael Bishop has a unique way of employing his talent in the satirizing of civilization's discontents while steering with a sure hand between the rocks of anarchy and the whirlpool of utopianism. He banks his verbal fires carefully, exercises a poet’s control over his imagery and possesses an admirable sense of the grotesque. I recommend him without reservation.”
— Roger Zelazny
“No Enemy but Time is thought-provoking, poignant, and remarkably funny. He is one of the most inventive writers in the current science fiction field, and also one of our most interesting and provocative stylists. The book kept me thinking long after I read the final page.”
— Elizabeth A. Lynn
"When I was a youngster, I read London's Before Adam and Crump's 'Og' books. I've been enthralled ever since by tales of pre-Homo sapiens. No Enemy but Time is the best fictional re-creation of these I've come across. It makes a glowing reality out of the dry bones of this field."
— Phillip Jose Farmer
"No Enemy but Time is a wonderful novel, the kind of crossover work that transcends genre. Its plot is complex and exciting; so are its intellectual concepts. It can stir the imagination of the traditional reader who requires the pervading sense of wonder that No Enemy but Time abundantly provides. It can also stir the imagination of the kind of reader who requires more intellectual and psychological substance. If Michael Bishop had not already been in my personal pantheon of the best science fiction writers for such a long time, No Enemy but Time would have earned him a place there."
— Robert Thurston
— Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
"Michael Bishop's work is seminal for any writer, no matter what genre. This incredible, moving novel of interspecies contact is an astonishing achievement."
— Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
"No Enemy but Time is a thought-provoking novel about humanity’s pre-human past, its all-too-human present, and the two’s relationship toward humanity’s future. The story is realized via vividly depicted scenes from pre-history and the puzzlingly human story of Joshua Kempa. Bishop does a masterful job relaying what life 2 million years ago in Africa might have been like, and combines it with a poignantly real present-day narrative (at least as it stood in the 1980s) describing the life of one man caught in the interstices of culture, place, dream, and identity. The result: an intelligent, complex story impossible to classify except as something liminally science fiction. No Enemy but Time is one of those books that reveals new layers with each fresh realization, a sublimely bittersweet vision that transcends the page.
— Fantasy Literature
“This odyssey into our African prehistoric past is a surprise and a delight—exciting, witty and touching.”
— Ian Watson
“An awesome tale of a time-traveler’s journey into the prehistoric past. A major novel.”
— Norman Spinrad
“If we’re lucky, SF each year seems to generate a single major novel that successfully combines science, people, and artful fiction. This [is] Michael Bishop's turn. No Enemy but Time is topnotch.”
— Edward Bryant
“Michael Bishop has a unique way of employing his talent in the satirizing of civilization's discontents while steering with a sure hand between the rocks of anarchy and the whirlpool of utopianism. He banks his verbal fires carefully, exercises a poet’s control over his imagery and possesses an admirable sense of the grotesque. I recommend him without reservation.”
— Roger Zelazny
“No Enemy but Time is thought-provoking, poignant, and remarkably funny. He is one of the most inventive writers in the current science fiction field, and also one of our most interesting and provocative stylists. The book kept me thinking long after I read the final page.”
— Elizabeth A. Lynn
"When I was a youngster, I read London's Before Adam and Crump's 'Og' books. I've been enthralled ever since by tales of pre-Homo sapiens. No Enemy but Time is the best fictional re-creation of these I've come across. It makes a glowing reality out of the dry bones of this field."
— Phillip Jose Farmer
"No Enemy but Time is a wonderful novel, the kind of crossover work that transcends genre. Its plot is complex and exciting; so are its intellectual concepts. It can stir the imagination of the traditional reader who requires the pervading sense of wonder that No Enemy but Time abundantly provides. It can also stir the imagination of the kind of reader who requires more intellectual and psychological substance. If Michael Bishop had not already been in my personal pantheon of the best science fiction writers for such a long time, No Enemy but Time would have earned him a place there."
— Robert Thurston
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