Climaxes And Codas

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series was complete as Guardians Of Time, then as The Guardians Of Time, now as Time Patrol plus The Shield Of Time.

As Guardians Of Time, it had a climax, "Delenda Est." As The Guardians Of Time, it had acquired what was in effect a coda, "Gibraltar Falls." However, this newer story was placed at the mid-point of the collection in order to preserve the status of "Delenda Est" as the climax. In Time Patrol, "Gibraltar Falls" remains between "Brave To Be A King" and "The Only Game In Town" whereas I think that it should be relocated to after "Delenda Est." The collected and now complete series should commence with the original tetralogy uninterrupted by this later addition.

In The Shield Of Time, the series acquired a new climax, "Amazement Of The World." Later, the entire series also acquired a new coda, "Death And The Knight." However, because it is a short story, "Death and The Knight" is included at the end of the omnibus collection, Time Patrol, not at the end of the novel, The Shield Of Time, even though it is a direct sequel to "Amazement Of The World," Part Six of the novel.

"Delenda Est" was the original climax not only because it introduced a collective villain, the Neldorians, but also because it featured a change to history. The Patrol had failed but now had to rectify the situation. "Amazement Of The World" is the new climax because it:

features a bigger and badder historical change, harder for the Patrol to rectify;
creatively innovates in time travel fiction by separating this change from any intervention by time criminals.

However, the idea of a collective time traveling villain had meanwhile been refined by the introduction of the Exaltationists. Everard says of the Committee for Aggrandizement:

"'...I don't think they are, say, Neldorians. This operation is too sophisticated.'" (Time Patrol, p. 259)

They are, in fact, Merau Varagan and a group of his fellow Exaltationists.

Thus, two collective villains, two climaxes and two codas.