Revelatory Sequels

Someone said that a good sequel is one that says, "There is a hell of a lot that we didn't tell you before."

We are informed in the first Time Patrol story that the purposes of the Time Patrol are both to help distressed time travellers and to prevent historical alterations, whether intended or unintended, by time travellers. The third story in the first collection adds a third purpose: sometimes to cause events that are necessary for the Danellian timeline. The conclusion of the Time Patrol novel reveals a fourth purpose: to prevent historical alterations resulting not from the activities of time travellers but from mere chance, temporal chaos. Asked:

"'Is that the meaning?'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, July, 1991), p. 435)

- a Danellian replies:

"'Yes. In a reality forever liable to chaos, the Patrol is the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course.'" (ibid.)

Random changes would be senseless and self-destructive and would prevent freedom. Thus, the Patrol would remain necessary even if there were no civilian time travellers. This a big reveal near the end of the series.

The second Captain Flandry story introduces Aycharaych, a Chereionite universal telepath working for the Merseians. The end of the Captain Flandry novel overturns our knowledge of Aycharaych. He is the last surviving Chereionite. To preserve his recorded heritage and to prevent the Merseians from using Chereionite technology for their purposes, he has deceived them into thinking that they are served by a still living and powerful Chereionite population. Another big reveal that casts earlier events in a very different light.