Megamultiverse Revisited

Two HG Wells titles, The War In The Air and The War Of The Worlds, read as if they could have been volumes of a series about future wars - aerial, interplanetary etc - whereas in fact they are independent works.

In the case of Poul Anderson's first two time travel volumes, Guardians Of Time and The Corridors Of Time, Guardians... was, at that time, the complete Time Patrol series whereas The Corridors... is not only not part of that series but also fundamentally contradicts it in their basic premises. However, some readers' minds would like to fit everything together if that was somehow possible.

Many universes make one multiverse. An even bigger dimensional framework, a megamultiverse, would be necessary to incorporate not only different timelines but also different kinds of timelines in which:

time travel is impossible;

time corridors are constructed;

time travel is a mutant power;

technology does not transport but transmits time travellers;

conventional "time machines" are used;

"time machinists" (so to say) can "change the past" so that a Time Patrol is needed.

Thus, the Time Patrol exists at the end of a comprehensive list.