Two time travel groups wage war through time;
they cannot change known events;
therefore, what they contend to influence is their common future;
however, they can change the longer term significance or ultimate outcomes of particular events.
It is possible to summarize two very different novels and make them sound much the same. This can be done, e.g., with CS Lewis' Perelandra and James Blish's A Case Of Conscience. The other side of the coin is that authors can be given the same idea and do different things with it. A Case Of Conscience is one of three stories by different authors set on the planet Lithia.
Several of Poul Anderson's works are alternative developments of Wells' ideas of Time as the Fourth Dimension and of ways to "move" along it. Maybe more on this later.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The question with which you began this blog piece of yours can be answered by citing two of Anderson's novels: THE CORRIDORS OF TIME and THERE WILL BE TIME. The contending groups in these books cannot change known events. As you said, they struggle to shape and influence their common future.
Or have I erred here? After all, the Eyrie of Caleb Wallis did not know till near the end of THERE WILL BE TIME that Jack Havig had built up a rival organization and would try to take it over. For there to be two contending groups they would have to know of each other's existence and trying to oppose and counteract it.
Sean
Sean,
I did mean those two books. Granted the Eyrie was unaware of Havig's group until too late.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I wonder how THERE WILL BE TIME might have turned out if the Eyrie had known of Havig's group long enough to have tried opposing it at least for some time? That in turn would have affected the tactics and methods needed for opposing the Eyrie.
Sean
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