Decision Points

Reading about the Roman-Germanic battles in the second last written Time Patrol story, "Star of the Sea," reminds us of Everard's and Van Sarawak's earlier (in two senses) intervention in the Battle of Ticinus in the second written Time Patrol story, "Delenda Est." Even better, since we can read "Star of the Sea" only in The Time Patrol/Time Patrol, we are able to refer back to "Delenda Est" in the same volume.

We have become used to imagining time travellers acting to prevent undesirable timelines but it is not only time travellers that do this. Every choice or decision creates one future and prevents others - at least in our experience. Every Allied mission during World War II helped to prevent a future containing a Nazi victory. In Frederick Forsyth's Icon, warned by a leaked secret political manifesto, a small but influential group acts to prevent a genocidal regime in Russia. Forsyth could also have written a near future novel set within such a regime. Mainstream authors might be closer to alternative history fiction than they think.

Time travel fiction can present real history and can also highlight the importance of decision points and historical turning points. Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series says a lot about why history happened as it did and how it could have been worse.