Customer Reviews

Time Patrol

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Together with DeCamp's LEST DARKNESS FALL or Silverbergs's UP THE LINE (and perhaps a few others), no other stories really capture the flavor of history, the paradox of time travel, or the genuine joy at being able to wander into the past as this book of stories.

Although the first few have the exact flavor of their era--1950's Astounding magazine--there is nothing really dated or obsolete about these eight stories. Each and every one is a delight, from the long agony of "Odin the Goth", who already knows the doom of those he loves, to the joy of catching time bandits in a beautifully realized ancient Tyre, Poul Anderson gives us stories of the sort that hooked me on science fiction all those years ago... and exactly what brings me back today.

The full set of time patrol stories at nearly 800 pages, this is the biggest bargain you'll find this year.

Anderson has provided the paradigm shift for all who wish to write about time. Causal loops and ethical delimmas conspire to provide an entertaining read as well as a well thought out philosophy of time travel. I hope this book comes back into print so I can purchase a copy for myself. I have check out the library copy twice so I can relive Manse Everard's adventures before reading "Shield of Time" which is the sequel. Now if I can just find the Time Patrol Office in this milieu.

Ever wondered what kind of complex moral issues the average time traveler can run up against? Read of Unattatched Manse Everard's travels and you'll soon find out! Why is it wrong for some travelers to get married?(hint, read the book) or to have children(hint 2,read the book). Its worse than opening a Pandora's box of morals and ethics! This book will give some teachers of Philosophy,some good issues to chew on, as well as their students! Don't get discouraged though! There's a lot of good that can be encouraged! And a lot of rules that can get bent too! Ever wonder how Danellians came up with some of these rules? Read the book and find out!

Poul Anderson does a terrific job of exploring the possibilities and problems of time travel. The man has a knack for history and sociology. He gets deep into the nitty gritty of daily life in the periods his hero visits in a way not many authors do. He explores obscure, out of the way pockets of time and takes you on a fascinating journey up the threads of time to see how events play one upon another. The Time Patrol stories and the "Trader to the Stars" stories were the ones that hooked me on Anderson years ago. What a wonderful story teller!.................Tom Kin

In my opinion Time Patrol is one the best Science Fiction adventure tales ever written. If you enjoy action adventures stories or if you are a Sci-Fi buff this classic deserves a space in your library. This is one of those stories that you will want to read over and over. Enjoy!

You can't go wrong with Poul Anderson, whose name is nearly synonymous with the genre, and TIME PATROL is an excellent hard science adventure which tells of a time traveler's ethical dilemma. His Patrol seeks to preserve the history they know and protect the future from terrorists who would remold it to their own purposes - even if the past should really be changed.

The Time Patrol is a very readable compilation of stories and novelettes about what is essentially a time travel police agency. The series centers on the Unattached Agent Manse Everard - an American recruited by the agency in 1954. The stories feature a variety of fairly accurate milieus, but the series' greatest asset and greatest flaw is the complex, confusing laws and requisitions concerning time travel. The rules basically state: the time-space continuum is elastic - it returns to its normal state given enough time; when the timeline is disrupted with great vehemency or someone happens to change a key event, time changes occur immediately; if the change is drastic enough, everything "up-time" of the incident vanishes and is replaced by an alternate time-line following the logical consequences of the disruption. That's where the agents of the Time Patrol come in - they have to return the timeline to its original design by preventing the disrupting event. This is when the complexities kick in: since the agents' actions are monitored by the agency, each part of the event - including the agents' success, is already documented. And if the correction meets failure, why doesn't the patrol send agent after agent until it is corrected? There are numerous other details too convoluted to mention.

In several of the stories the dialog degenerates into simplistic monologs, and the narration gains an almost derisive sing-song quality to it. You've been forewarned.

Poul Anderson was a history buff and, except for the first, each of these stories seems to represent his need to come to grips with his research into a particular era. Stipulated that Anderson was a master storyteller, almost incapable of telling a dull tale -- yet some of these do approach dullness, if you don't happen to share his fascination with the details of that era. Yes, sometimes he makes the history come alive in vivid descriptive passages: this is "showing" not "telling," and indeed "showing" of a high order.

But in some stories, he "tells" instead, using long expository passages in which characters bring each other up to date on the historical background of the era in question. Anderson's expository dialog, unlike his action or plotting, is dull and sometimes awkward, and I several times lost interest and skimmed.

And in other stories, contrarily, he doesn't do enough exposition: "Gibraltar Falls" vividly describes the era when the Atlantic spilled into the then-dry Mediterranean valley, but gives the curious reader no background to follow up the geological speculation on which it is grounded. Similarly, "The Only Game in Town" describes a Mongol expedition into North America, a speculation that I believe has some basis, but although Anderson tells us a lot about the Mongols, there is not enough of a handle to follow it up into current research.

Net: fun for history buffs; action/adventure fans might do better reading other series by Anderson.

This book is a reissue or reprint of a collection of short stories that Anderson wrote, starting in the 1950s. A set of now classic tales of time travel. Anderson was a prolific writer, and had several series of stories. But the Time Patrol remains one of my favourite. Even though the first story was written some 50 years ago, it and its successors are still fresh. With a crisp, clean narrative style and a compelling storyline that Anderson was able to flesh out. The stories have never gone out of print for long. Attesting to their enduring popularity.

Perhaps one reason for which is due to the wide appeal of well posed time travel plots. These let the reader vicariously partake of an extended longevity, that can span millennia.

Sadly, Anderson himself was all too mortal. He died a few years ago. [At least he saw the 21st century.] So unless another talented author takes up this series, with the permission of Anderson's estate, the tale has ended.

A lot of SF now seems dated, but this one doesn't at all. It is an absolutely excellent collection of stories, tied together by the central character. Well researched, well thought out, characters developed, and if you suspend disbelief about time travel, the rest is all totally believable and consistent. It's a wonderful read.