Carl Farness, first person narrator of the passages that are not set in the 300-372 period, describes his relationship with his twentieth century wife, Laurie:
"As a field agent, I'd go through days, weeks, or months between saying good-bye to her in the morning and returning for dinner..." (p. 345)
Months! Plus which, both live indefinitely prolonged lifespans. His cumulative ages approaches a hundred and sometimes feels like a thousand and he adds that that shows. Surely all of this means that their experience of life, time etc is scarcely human any more? What will it be like when their cumulative ages really are a thousand? Meanwhile, they will have to move house a lot. They have already moved from 1980 to the 1930's. Do Time Patrollers work until they drop or do they have some kind of retirement? I can imagine wanting to go into suspended animation for a thousand years, then start life again on a new planet.
2 comments:
I have a feeling field agents don't generally get beyond a couple of hundred years before something does them in.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, it's far more likely than not that many field agents came to grief, one way or another, in those two centuries.
Ad astra! Sean
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