Change And Chance

Poul Anderson, 209 B. C. IN Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991) AT pp. 17-25.

This is the first of five chapters headed 209 B. C. in PART TWO of Volume II of the complete Time Patrol collection.

Physically, all that happens in this chapter is that Hipponicus' caravan, including the guard Meander (Manse Everard), approaches and enters Bactra. But high technology is at work. An unmanned spacecraft had tracked the caravan, revealing that it would suit Everard's purposes to join it. So Meander was with the caravan when it was tracked. 

We read the usual Andersonian details about the countryside, then the city. Everard recalls Afghanistan, 1970, and reflects:

"A lot of change and chance would blow from the steppes in the millennia to come. Too damn much." (p. 22)

Too much? But we would not want the region or the world to remain as it was in 209 BC? "Change and chance" is an evocative phrase encapsulating much that is to be found in Poul Anderson's historical fiction, historical science fiction, time travel fiction and future histories. That phrase says it all. The particular works fill in the details.

Change and chance...