The opening phrase:
"On an evening in mid-twentieth century New York..."
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, The Guardians Of Time (New York, 1981), pp. 65-124 AT 1, p. 65 -
- makes us aware of time and would usually be an odd way to start a story just as we do not usually begin by specifying which planet someone is on.
The name "Manse Everard" alerts us if we have already read "Time Patrol." Everard wants to read "...the lost narratives of Dr. Watson." (ibid.) One of these narratives had played a pivotal role in "Time Patrol." Are we to understand that Everard has access to the untold cases?
When he realizes that it is Cynthia Denison that has rung his doorbell:
"...all at once, it was as if he were aboard some early spaceship which had just entered free fall; he stood weightless and helpless in a blaze of stars." (ibid.)
Does this comparison imply knowledge of later spaceships that do not enter free fall?
Spears and a helmet from the Achaean Bronze Age hang above Everard's bar. We either know or will soon realize that these objects have been brought directly from that Age.
On p. 66, he becomes awkward, forgetting his Time Patrol training. Now, if we did not already, we understand that he is a time traveler.
When they mention that it has only been a few months since she married Keith Denison, Cynthia comments:
"'Entropic time. Regular, untampered-with, twenty-four-hours-to-the-day time... Not much more than that for me. I've been in now almost continuously since my, my wedding.'" (p. 66)
She asks Everard how many years he has lived in how many epochs since he was Keith's best man.
The bitter reference to "'Entropic time...'", the curious phrase, "'I've been in now...'" and the question about years and epochs give some idea of how Time Patrollers must feel with their knowledge of time travel. The marriage was eight and a half months ago for Cynthia but two or three years for Everard.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
That mention of the "lost narratives of Dr. Watson" reminded me of how S.M. Stirling did something similar in many of his stories. That is, the Earth 1 of CONQUISTADOR seems a lot like OUR timeline, but we eventually find out it is a different one: because the male line of the Rolfe family did not die out in CONQUISTADOR's world as it had in ours. So, the hints we get about that private inquiry agent in "Time Patrol" and then this mention of Dr. Watson's lost narratives tells the Patrol guards a timeline where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were real persons!
Ad astra! Sean
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