Reordering Reading

As they stand, the two volumes of the Time Patrol series need to be read in tandem. To understand how the relationship between Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly has developed between the end of "The Year of the Ransom" and the beginning of "Death and the Knight," we need to read the whole of The Shield Of Time. The reading order of the series would be rationalized if "Death and the Knight" were to be moved to the end of The Shield Of Time and if, also, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" were to be moved to the end of Time Patrol. In the order of events as experienced by Everard, "Ivory..." fits between "The Year of the Ransom" and The Shield Of Time and nowhere else. Finally, "Gibraltar Falls" fits better after the original Guardians Of Time tetralogy rather than inserted into the middle of it. That insertion was made in order to preserve the status of "Delenda Est" as the culmination of The Guardians Of Time. Now, however, the omnibus collection should culminate with "Ivory..." because the end of that story leads directly into PART ONE of The Shield Of Time. Furthermore, the concluding PART SIX of that novel recounts a greater reality alteration than the one described in "Delenda Est."