Multiverse, Eds Bear And Dozois

Can I write anything about a book before reading it? I can neither summarise nor evaluate its contents so not much. I can say that Multiverse is bound to be fascinating, comprising not only appreciations of Poul Anderson, man and writer, but also fictions inspired by his works, including one new Dominic Flandry story and two new Time Patrol stories.

It is probably unnecessary to add that if these stories are not written very well, then it would have been better not to have written them. I think that they need to be fully consistent with their respective existing series. The Time Patrol stories must be free from the glaring internal inconsistencies that often mar time travel fiction. Further, the stories need to be written either in good imitations of Anderson's style or in alternative styles that can be shown to be appropriate for their contents.

One of the Time Patrol stories is by Robert Silverberg, a prolific science fiction writer by whom I have not read very much. His telepathy novel, Dying Inside, is superb. He has written perhaps half a dozen novels featuring time travel although I did not highly rate those that I read. In "The Logic of Time Travel: Part II" on www.logicoftimetravel.blogspot.co.uk, I criticize his Hawksbill Station and particularly his Up The Line for their internal inconsistencies. However, Silverberg will surely accept the premises and rules of the Time Patrol series when writing about the Time Patrol so his contribution should be ok from that angle. (http://logicoftimetravel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/logic-of-time-travel-part-ii.html)

Up The Line, which I think is irredeemably marred from a "logic of time travel" perspective, also happens to include an amusing parody of Anderson's Time Patrol.