In a fictive universe imagined in eight stories and one novel, time ismutable, and once time travel is discovered, humanity's remotedescendants, the Danellians, set up the Time Patrol to ensure that nochanges to the past will wipe out their own present. This construct(also used in The Shield of Time ) acts as a wonderful vehicle forAnderson's love of history. Manse Everard, whose presence unifies thiscollection, is recruited by the Patrol and rapidly ascends to the rankof roving troubleshooter. Frequently Everard finds that to preserve hisown future he must destroy an alternate one, and his success is madebittersweet by his empathy for people who will never exist except inhis own memory. The writing is excellent, distinguished by Hugo andNebula winner Anderson's skill at weaving a background of sights andsounds to make the stage, and thus the actors, more real. Four of thestories are reprinted from his first Time Patrol collection (1960),four are from more recent volumes, and the novel is new with this book.
Forget minor hazards like nuclear bombs. The discovery of time travel means that everything we know, anyone we know, might not only vanish, but never even have existed. Against that possibility stand the men and women of the Time Patrol, dedicated to preserving the history they know and protecting the future from fanatics, terrorists, and would-be dictators who would remold the shape of reality to suit their own purposes. But Manse Everard, the Patrol's finest temporal trouble-shooter, bears a heavy burden. The fabric of history is stained with human blood and suffering which he cannot, must not do anything to alleviate, lest his tampering bring disastrous alterations in future time. Everard must leave the horrors of the past in place, lest his tampering-or that of the Patrol's opponents, the Exaltationists-erase all hope of a better future, and instead bring about a future filled with greater horrors than any recorded by past history at its darkest and most foul.
Description:
In a fictive universe imagined in eight stories and one novel, time ismutable, and once time travel is discovered, humanity's remotedescendants, the Danellians, set up the Time Patrol to ensure that nochanges to the past will wipe out their own present. This construct(also used in The Shield of Time ) acts as a wonderful vehicle forAnderson's love of history. Manse Everard, whose presence unifies thiscollection, is recruited by the Patrol and rapidly ascends to the rankof roving troubleshooter. Frequently Everard finds that to preserve hisown future he must destroy an alternate one, and his success is madebittersweet by his empathy for people who will never exist except inhis own memory. The writing is excellent, distinguished by Hugo andNebula winner Anderson's skill at weaving a background of sights andsounds to make the stage, and thus the actors, more real. Four of thestories are reprinted from his first Time Patrol collection (1960),four are from more recent volumes, and the novel is new with this book.
Forget minor hazards like nuclear bombs. The discovery of time travel means that everything we know, anyone we know, might not only vanish, but never even have existed. Against that possibility stand the men and women of the Time Patrol, dedicated to preserving the history they know and protecting the future from fanatics, terrorists, and would-be dictators who would remold the shape of reality to suit their own purposes. But Manse Everard, the Patrol's finest temporal trouble-shooter, bears a heavy burden. The fabric of history is stained with human blood and suffering which he cannot, must not do anything to alleviate, lest his tampering bring disastrous alterations in future time. Everard must leave the horrors of the past in place, lest his tampering-or that of the Patrol's opponents, the Exaltationists-erase all hope of a better future, and instead bring about a future filled with greater horrors than any recorded by past history at its darkest and most foul.