Guardians Of Time (four stories) and The Guardians Of Time (five stories) climaxed with "Delenda Est." This remained the case when The Guardians Of Time and its sequel, Time Patrolman (two stories), were collected as Annals Of The Time Patrol. Annals... was two discrete collections in one volume. See the attached image of the title page.
The expanded collection, The Time Patrol, made two changes. It included two more stories and it abolished the distinction between the two earlier collections. However, it retained their story order. Thus, "Delenda Est," which had been the last story in The Guardians Of Time, was still immediately followed by "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," which had been the first story in Time Patrolman. However, all nine stories in The Time Patrol precede the novel, The Shield Of Time, and the beginning of that novel informs us that it immediately follows "Ivory..." which should therefore be placed at the end of The Time Patrol which has since been expanded as Time Patrol (ten stories) although the tenth story immediately follows The Shield Of Time.
Rereading Time Patrol, I have passed directly from "Delenda Est" to "Ivory..." although I am aware of the convoluted fictional chronology. "Ivory..." is one of the stories in which there are no causality violations because the time criminals are prevented from changing history.
6 comments:
I still think the Exaltationists are being rather dim trying to do -historical- alterations; the Patrol is too strongly placed to prevent that.
Stirling:
By that do you mean the Exaltationists would have a better chance doing *pre-historical* alterations?
Jim,
That is deffo the point. The further back in time you are, the fewer Patrol agents further back than you.
Paul.
Paul & Jim: Exactly. The big thing is the Academy. That contains -all- the Patrol's personnel, and it's located long before the evolution of human beings. It's like a pre-historical sheet anchor. Before the Academy, there's only a scattering of scientists and researchers. If you did an alteration before the Academy was built, you'd "get" the overwhelming majority of the Patrol. But that would have to be a change more ecological in nature than political. I can think of ways to do it, ones that would result in human-inhabited world for someone like the Exaltationists to rule. What I can't think of is some way to do a -historical- alteration (like the one in DELENDA EST) that wouldn't be subject to undoing.
(From SM Stirling.)
Not only are all Patrol agents present as students at the Academy, but a large number must, over 500,000 years, must be present as teachers and faculty, too, and at later stages in their careers with more experience.
Furthermore, all the Patrols knowledge-base must be present at the Academy, and extensive technical capacities too.
It is the older versions of the agents that will be called on if necessary to deal with a causality violation.
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