Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Many Times II

In the Complete Works of Poul Anderson, in my opinion, seven time travel stories should be collected as Past Times: Revised Edition:

"The Man Who Came Early," about the difficulties encountered by a man who is mysteriously transported to the Viking period, should definitely be included;

"Time Heals" would fit because its theme is difficulties encountered when transported into the future - although its character cannot return, thus experiences temporal stasis rather than time travel;

non-time travel items should be removed and collected elsewhere;

"Eutopia," about travel between alternative timelines, would fit better in a parallel universes collection ideally to be called The Old Phoenix And Other Universes, thus linking it to Anderson's four parallel universe novels;

"Wildcat," "The Little Monster," "The Nest" and "The Man Who Came Early" are set in different past periods;

"Welcome," "Time Heals" and "Flight To Forever" describe various problems encountered when traveling into the future. 

Anderson wrote at least four non-time travel stories set in different past periods that are familiar from his novels: prehistoric, Roman and Viking. These stories -

"The Long Remembering,"
"The Forest,"
"The Peat Bog" and
"The Tale of Hauk"

- could form a Many Times collection. I will shortly reread these works and maybe comment here. 

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