While listening to music, some thoughts about the Time Patrol went through my head, probably nothing that hasn't been said on this blog before.
In The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
"Time Patrol" (May, 1955)
"Delenda Est" (December, 1955)
"Brave to be a King" (August, 1959)
"The Only Game in Town" (January, 1960)
"Gibraltar Falls" (October, 1975)
In Guardians Of Time (1960)
"Time Patrol"
"Brave to be a King"
"The Only Game in Town"
"Delenda Est"
In The Guardians Of Time (1981)
"Time Patrol"
"Brave to be a King"
"Gibraltar Falls"
"The Only Game in Town"
"Delenda Est"
"Time Patrol" is the beginning.
In Guardians...:
"Delenda Est" was relocated to the end where its dramatic historical alteration serves as a culmination;
"The Only Game in Town" acquired a reference back to "Brave to be a King";
"Delenda Est" acquired references back to the other three stories;
thus, the four stories became four successive episodes.
Other observations:
"Gibraltar Falls" shows a later stage of Manse Everard's career so should be placed after "Delenda Est";
Keith Denison is featured in "Brave...," is referenced in the remaining two stories in Guardians... and reappears in the later novel, The Shield Of Time (maximal use of a character);
the remaining six items in the series have internal references that give them a linear reading order from "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" to "Death and the Knight";
thus, the entire series has what should be a recommended reading order.
2 comments:
It's notable how much Poul improved as a writer between say 1950 and 1955 -- he was always pretty good, but he got much more subtle about characterization in that period.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! Even Anderson's earlier stories were usually very good, such as the original version of "Tiger By The Tail." But we can see how he became much more subtle about characterization as early as THE BROKEN SWORD (1954, which was my birth year, btw).
Ad astra! Sean
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