Simon Hawke's Time Wars series

Simon Hawke published twelve Time Wars books from 1984 to 1991. They're entertaining action-adventures making heavy use of time travel, with the twist that most of the 'historical' scenarios are actually based on classic fiction rather than genuine history. In particular, The Zenda Vendetta takes place in the fictional country of Ruritania, as described in Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda (1894).

The table below is a rereader's guide, intended mainly as a brief reminder of when each regular character appeared and died in the series. Some characters are duplicated in an alternate timeline, hence Priest and Priest2, etc. Lucas Priest has the further distinction of dying and then reappearing later in the series, thanks to temporal intervention by Dr Darkness.

BookCenturyEntranceExitMain villainComments
The Ivanhoe Gambit 12th Priest, Delaney, Forrester, de la Croix, Hunter Goldblum Excellent
The Timekeeper Conspiracy 17th Mongoose, Cobra Hunter Taylor Good but complex
The Pimpernel Plot 18th Cobra, Cobra2 Cobra2? OK
The Zenda Vendetta 19th Drakov Mongoose Falcon Good
The Nautilus Sanction 18th, 19th, 20th Steiger (as Martingale), Darkness Drakov OK
The Khyber Connection 19th Alternate timeline, Special Operations Group (SOG) Priest, Priest2 Drakov OK
The Argonaut Affair BC Moreau, Hunter2 Drakov Rather tedious and fanciful
The Dracula Caper 19th Neilson, Craven Drakov (clone) Drakov OK
The Lilliput Legion 18th, 20th Priest again Network, Drakov OK
The Hellfire Rebellion 18th Drakov (clone) Drakov, Network OK
The Cleopatra Crisis 1st BC Steiger SOG, Network Below average
The Six-Gun Solution 19th Drakov, SOG, Network Quite good