SM Stirling avoids having to explain time travel theory by having the inventor of the time machine die when the team departs for 165 CE! He dies because parts of his body are left behind.
The team leader thinks:
"This feels more like being in uniform again than being an academic. Or some weird combination of both." (p. 81)
That is the best kind: theory and practice combined.
They can find out whether the past can be changed only by trying to change it. And, if something is going to prevent them, then the simplest way for this to happen would be their deaths which are all too possible in any case. The inventor, Fuchs, seems to have thought that causality violation was possible but it is not known how much he knew about it. In some ways the characters know no more than we do. It is all a steep learning curve for all concerned.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, there are scholarly Army and Navy officers, a tradition which in the West should best be dated as starting with Carl von Clausewitz's classic treatise ON WAR. And plenty of military academies and general staffs since then, in many nations, have produced learned analyses of war and conflict.
Ad astra! Sean
Arthur was following a family tradition of military service. He'd rather have been a historian, though he did both well.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
He did/does! I'm sure you read your full share of military histories and analyses of war/conflict. I've read few myself, such as Clausewitz's ON WAR.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: One thing you get is that generals are important, and when operations get big/massive, junior officers are important.
That can be significant. The German General Staff was concerned that by 1917, the Russian army would be too massive to beat -- but they were preoccupied by numbers and neglected quality. In fact, even when the Russians had a substantial advantage in numbers, the Germans beat them like a drum in WW1, due to qualitative differences.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I only partly agree. Yes, qualitatively, as a whole, the German Army was better than the Russian in WW I. But this should not be exaggerated, by the beginning of 1917 the Central Allies had advanced only as far east as Russian Poland and relatively small parts of the western Ukraine and was nowhere near Kiev.
The impression I get was that the Tsarist Army was gradually getting better, despite a thousand blunders. Much better than the Soviet Army was in WW II, allowing for technological changes.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: It was getting technically better, but nearing a collapse in morale. Czar Nicholas taking direct control from his uncle was a bad, bad thing. And prioritising the Army involved starving the cities, which eventually produced the Revolution(s).
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