Bid Time Return II

When I wrote here that authors can make time return, I meant, first, that they can write not only sequels but also prequels and, secondly, that series episodes which are written later can nevertheless be set earlier. Ian Fleming never did this. Each new James Bond novel was meant to be set after the previous one and in the present. For other approaches, see Alternative Reading Orders.

Poul Anderson referred to Adzel's student days in an action-adventure story published in an sf magazine in 1965, then described those days in a juvenile short story published in an original anthology in 1974.

After the publication of the long Time Patrol novel, The Shield Of Time:

the short Time Patrol novel, "Star of the Sea," was first published in the comprehensive omnibus collection, The Time Patrol, later Time Patrol;

the Time Patrol short story, "Of Death And The Knight," was published in an original anthology about the Knights Templar, then later incorporated into Time Patrol.

Manse Everard of the Patrol meets Wanda Tamberly in "The Year of The Ransom," begins a relationship with her at the end of The Shield Of Time and continues that relationship in "Of Death And The Knight" (and is married to her in "A Slip In Time" by SM Stirling). Thus, "Of Death And The Knight" not only was written after The Shield Of Time but also is a sequel to it. Indeed, it is a direct sequel because the events of "Of Death And The Knight" interrupt a holiday begun at the end of The Shield Of Time.

However, "Star of the Sea" describes Everard's relationship with Janne Floris. Anderson wants this relationship to have begun and ended before Everard meets Wanda and the dates as given in "Star of the Sea" clearly indicate that this is the case. Thus, this story not only presents Everard reminiscing about his personal past but also gives its readers information about a period of his career that is earlier than some that we have already read. Still earlier episodes could have been written but unfortunately were not.

Despite all this looking back, we also want to know what happens next, in particular what happens when Everard has to wind up his twentieth century persona that has lived in a New York apartment for so many decades. Would he, like the Farnesses, simply relocate to a still earlier decade of the twentieth century? And what happens after that, if he continues to live indefinitely as Time Patrol agents can?