William Walker, Time Criminal

William Walker in SM Stirling's Island In The Sea Of Time (New York, 1998) is like a time criminal in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. Operating in 1250 B.C., Walker, if he succeeds, will soon have changed the course of world events so completely that he will no longer be living in anything like the ancient history of our Earth. It will be a whole new world with an unpredictable future. His house in the newly built town of Walkerburg has:

Franklin stoves;
sanded split log floors with rugs;
walls made straight with plumbing lines;
upper floors and staircases;
hinged doors;
glass-chimney oil lamps;
molded wax candles;
"'...like the palaces of the gods...'" (p. 415)

Slaves work the cornfields and meadows.

Walker reflects:

"The seed kernel of an empire. Archaeologists may dig it up someday. The place where the dynasty that ruled the world for a thousand years was born. If things went well, he'd move somewhere more convenient in a couple of years - the site of London, probably - but this was the first ground that had been his." (p. 447)

There will be no Londinium/London but instead an earlier city named after Walker. In the absence of a Time Patrol, it is to be hoped that the Nantucketer expeditionary force is going to foil his schemes.