Past Imperfect (Daw Book Collectors) [Paperback]

Martin Harry Greenberg (Author), Larry Segriff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Daw Book Collectors | Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Some of the most forward-thinking science fiction writers of our time take on the neverending paradoxes of time travel-in this original anthology of all-new tales by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter Crowther, Jane Lindskold, Robin Wayne Bailey, Gary Braunbeck, Dean Wesley Smith, Jody Lynn Nye, James P. Hogan, and others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fast, lightweight anthology of 12 time-travel tales contains a handful of standout stories, but many others rely on familiar tricks: Will the hero change his destiny by changing his past? Will the hero realize that that sound he heard all those years ago was his meddling future self? The most successful stories toy with genre conventions or use time travel as a device in support of bigger concerns. James P. Hogan's slyly amusing "Convolution" focuses on time-machine inventor Professor Abercrombie. The professor loses his notes before completing his machine, but a future version of himself sends a time machine back, embroiling Abercrombie in a neatly dovetailed succession of weird cross-time commutes. In Nina Kiriki Hoffman's amusing "Mint Condition," time travel takes a backseat to time-traveler Sissy's realization that her bosses are playing her for a fool. Family-centered stories include Jody Lynn Nye's light "Theory of Relativity," in which Rachel recruits another version of herself and tracks down their grandfather; Peter Crowther's emotionally fraught "Things I Didn't Know My Father Knew," about a man's opportunity to see his dead father; and Gary A. Braunbeck's touching "Palimpsest Day," wherein a man has the chance to change his life by intervening at one moment in his past. Newcomers to the genre will find many stories engaging, but too few of these entries question the clich‚s they perpetuate. (Oct. 9)Forecast: A cover featuring a warped clock and a cartoon-like air vehicle will appeal to young readers more than to SF aficionados, and won't do much to boost sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The authors of these new stories on the classic sf trope of time travel let it lead them as it may through genres including mystery, romance, space opera, and quiet reflection at home. The book's selections are excellent, which isn't surprising given the likes of Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jody Lynn Nye, and James P. Hogan as contributors and the fact that lesser-knowns proffer fine stories, too. Altogether, they take us to both the future and the past. William H. Keith Jr.'s "Iterations" goes so far into the future that it is nearly incomprehensible, and Kathleen Massie-Ferch's "A Touch through Time" begins with a scientist in love with a woman who has been dead for nearly a century. Sometimes, even the past travels, and in Peter Crowther's "Things I Didn't Know My Father Knew," fog brings more than low visibility. Veteran anthologist Greenberg and his latest collaborator have crafted a well-balanced and entertaining anthology. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: DAW (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756400120
• ISBN-13: 978-0756400125
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,209,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little more meat, August 1, 2003

By 

Eileen Stember (Trenton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Past Imperfect (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

I always love time travel stories, and I've read some great anthologies, but this one left me feeling that there could have been more. "Time Machines" by Bill Adler, is a great anthology of time travel stories. Or if you want a full novel, I'd go for "Timeline" by Michael Crichton or "Twilight" by Nicholas Stember, both excellent reads.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 9/12ths of a good collection, February 11, 2006

By 

Michael Bond (Shawnee, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Past Imperfect (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

Time travel is one of my very favorite topics. This anthology of time-travel stories contains works by some popular writers, Diane Duane, Dean Wesley Smith and James P Hogan, for example. As with any anthology, I enjoyed some stories more than others and for the most part I enjoyed each of the stories. Some - like 'Mint Condition' are more innovative than the rest.

Three* of them, however, do not belong in this collection. They are good stories but aren't really time-travel stories. It is as if the author wrote a story and then made a couple changes to slide them into this sub-genre. The editor should not have included them (IMHO).

Here are the stories ranked in my personal preference:


Mint Condition
Convolutions
Blood Trail
Theory Of Relativity
In The Company Of Heros
Doing Time
A Touch Through Time
Jeff's Best Joke
Iterations
*Things I Didn't Know My Father Knew
*Palempest Day
*The Gift Of A Dream

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 12 stories: past, present, future, May 27, 2005

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Past Imperfect (Daw Book Collectors) (Paperback)

past imperfect - tense of a verb showing an action/condition in the past as incomplete, continuous, or coincident with another action
- from THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY

Segriff's introduction establishes a foundation for readers who may be familiar with some varieties of time travel stories but not others. The initial general discussion of "Golden Age" science fiction leads to how science has transformed many concepts that were once pure fiction, which in turn leads to a short discourse on the physics of time travel.

One issue I have with this anthology is that "write what you know" goes too far when a noticeable fraction of the stories focus on writers and comics.

Bailey, Robin Wayne: "Doing Time" initially carries a strong flavour of Wells' THE TIME MACHINE - particularly that last trip beyond the end of the world, to an empty world. But here the prototype-testing time-traveller discovers that time travel will eventually give a new meaning to "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

Braunbeck, Gary A.: "Palimpsest Day" The narrator, sole caregiver of his Down's-syndrome-afflicted sister, has had to abandon many dreams, the hardest of which was love. Now the past and present have started bleeding into one another, leading back to a particular day when his mother nearly miscarried. Much of consideration of physics, souls, and second chances.

Crowther, Peter: "Things I Didn't Know My Father Knew" Fantasy, not SF. Finding YOU HAVE WON A VISIT FROM YOUR FATHER! on a message with the morning paper, Bennett meets a nameless stranger (remarkably like his dad) walking out of a mysterious fog surrounding his home. Lots of leisurely scene-setting, emphasizing scent rather than visual imagery since the story's focus is on memory.

Duane, Diane: Rob spent his childhood "In the Company of Heroes" - until a stranger stole his comics collection, destroying his innocent confidence that he could always protect what mattered to him. Now one kind of broken time machine has led him to a Swiss clockmaker who has connections with a quite different kind of time machine, if someone really *needs* to travel.

Hoffman, Nina Kiriki: Time travel's nastier accidents have results ranging from phobias and scars to wiped records, so the CollectorCorps charges premium prices for acquiring luxury items, such as "Mint Condition" comics. But the title has other meanings:
- the narrator's "mint condition" self between missions, as opposed to her real self on a mission, remembering some things she's been forced to do by partners armed with a post-hypnotic password.
- the world's "mint condition" in the past, with breathable air freely available under the open sky, lots of life
Sissy's unusually gifted, while her rookie partner Steve (brother of a board member) only cares about his fantasy of driving a hot car. Nice contrast with Sissy's simpler pleasures of busking outdoors, especially since Steve prefers quick theft to acquire local currency. Nice attention to practical considerations of blending in. Since Sissy's experienced and her partner's too arrogant to ask for information, clarification of details for the reader is slow.

Hogan, James P: "Convolution" of causes and effects, as secretive professor Abercrombie attempts to build a time machine (the university governors are very tolerant when a billionaire is bankrolling the project). He keeps contending with incidents that make no sense: disappearing design notes, disappearing/reappearing prototypes, his schedule going missing...

Keith, William H. jr: "Iterations" My favourite. An accident has tossed the spacecraft HAWKING into the gravitational pull of the black hole it was investigating, and the three-member crew (including the AI Stephen) are about to experience a new way to die. I enjoy stories with vivid sensory description, and this is beautiful. (I also enjoy the irony of the professor's pet explanation being turned on him like this.)

Lindskold, Jane: "Jeff's Best Joke" Jeff and Jim, good friends and passionate field archaeologists, excavate sites scheduled for destruction (usually road-building, in New Mexico). Nevertheless, they enjoy a joke, taking turns planting modern items (once a 1950s license plate) on each other's patches. Then Jim's favourite trowel turns up fossilized under a layer of baked adobe...

Massie-Ferch, Kathleen M.: "A Touch Through Time" The narrator, playing the role of theatre ghost as his time machine opens a window (but not a door) on the past, has come to care for an actress doomed to perish in a fire.

Nye, Jody Lynn: "Theory of Relativity" A submission to an alternate universe's professional time-travel publication, edited by AU versions of this book's editors. Joke doesn't work for me.

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Thanks to the "Blood Trail" left by the latest in a series of killings, Wheldon knows almost exactly where and when she died. This attracts the attention of the FBI's Temporal Offices, who avoid cases that might reveal the existence (and government control) of the technology. But New York doesn't have sunshine laws, so testimony could be given in a closed court if this experimental investigation proves successful. *Really* nice realism, from the characterization (ranging from eager beavers to those who question the wisdom of government control of time), to worries about admissible testimony, to the preparation required to avoid accidentally changing history.

Smith, Dean Wesley: "The Gift of a Dream" plays with the arrow of time. Interstellar travel results in age regression, so only the elderly can combat attacking aliens. Inconsistent handling of medical issues, implausible "security".