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.
| Book | Century | Entrance | Exit | Main villain | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |