Thursday 26 May 2022

A Series Turned Inside Out

"Star of the Sea," 20.

Manse Everard and Janne Floris are unsure where they stand with each but are mature enough to sort it out. There was a narrative imperative here because Poul Anderson set this story in 1986, knowing that Everard would meet Wanda Tamberly for the first time in October of that year.

The chronology of the Time Patrol series was turned inside out. "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," originally to be read immediately after The Guardians Of Time, should now be read immediately before The Shield Of Time with "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," "Star of the Sea" and "The Year of the Ransom," in that order, coming between the five stories in The Guardians Of Time and "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks." This is the order in which Everard and other characters experience the events. Time travel could have become more complicated and might have done if the series had been continued.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And that's the way I listed the Time Patrol stories in the second volume of my CODEX ANDERSONIANUS. Listing the stories as experienced by Manse Everard and his best known associates seems to be the best way of chronologically making sense of the series.

Ad astra! Sean