-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), 1137 A.D., p. 344.
At last, the big change happens. When I first read this passage, I thought that a whole new time travel concept was appearing on the page before my eyes. However, recent posts, starting from The Growth Of An Idea, clearly demonstrate that this idea had been laboriously built up to, first in "The Year of the Ransom," then in two earlier Parts of The Shield Of Time.
After the fluctuation in space-time-energy, there is one more new idea. Having fought time criminals, Everard must now fight a personal causal nexus, a medieval knight whose world line interacts with so many others that small changes in his personal life cause big historical changes for everyone else.
On this basement, as Nicholas van Rijn would say, The Shield Of Time concludes by presenting a completely different understanding of the role of the Patrol. Even if there were no civilian time travel and no time criminals, the Patrol would still be necessary as:
"'...the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course.'"
-op. cit., 1990 A.D., p. 435.
With the shorter Time Patrol works collected in a single volume as Time Patrol, The Shield Of Time becomes Volume II (of II) of the series. If Anderson had written a third volume, what might we have learned about:
the Danellians;
Everard's later career;
other Patrol agents;
further original contributions to the time travel concept?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And what made Part VI, "Amazement of the World," of THE SHIELD OF TIME so PAINFUL a case for Manse Everard was due to the LIKING he came to have for that knight, Ser Lorenzo. He really was, in many ways, a thoroughly decent and admirable a man. Everard and Wanda Tamberly tried hard to nullify that "personal nexus point" in ways that would not harm Lorenzo.
Sean
I do wish Poul had lived, but I doubt he would have done that third volume. He'd sort of moved on, I think.
(I particularly wish he'd been around for the dramatic rebirth of spaceflight. He would have been surprised, and delighted, that an actual colonization of Mars is now conceivable in the 2020's.)
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Oh, I so absolutely agree with what you said about Poul Anderson and space flight!!!!!! The long, agonizing period of NOTHING MUCH being done in any real way in space since the last Moon landing in 1973 has been an enraging torment! I ardently hope Elon Musk succeeds in founding a Mars base/colony soon!!!!
Sean
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