Sunday, 19 July 2026

Time Travel Scenarios

Returned from the Viking Festival, where a guy at a stall blew through a tube to make small pewter Thor's hammers, we resume rereading Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates which remains fascinating although it really belongs on the Logic of Time Travel blog which, however, has effectively transferred its functions here, to the Poul Anderson Appreciation blog. See About Time Travel.

Meanwhile, SM Stirling's The Lords Of Creation, Volume III, The Lords Of Creation, should be en route via eBay. "Poul" and other sf writers have their says at the beginning of Volume I or II as far as I can remember without being able to check the text momentarily.

Contemporary fiction has a single premise: that the contemporary world exists as it does because history occurred as recorded. Sf varies its premises. Poul Anderson's Time Patrol would be unnecessary in The Anubis Gates. How would the Patrol respond to the events of SM Stirling's To Turn The Tide? As a matter of fact, in the Patrol timeline, there is not, as far as we know, any world-wide nuclear war in 2032. Therefore, the Patrol would prevent such a war from occurring and would also, of course, try to prevent any time travellers from changing history in the second century CE.

Good guys in one scenario are bad guys in another.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

That's new to me, a craftsman blowing thru a tube to somehow turn molten pewter into those "hammers." I thought the usual method was to cast such objects from molten metals poured into molds.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I didn't follow the entire process but he definitely blew and, at some later stage, produced the hammers.

Paul.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

It seems needlessly complicated.

Have fun with THE LORDS OF CREATION, I did!

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

He was blowing on charcoal fuel to heat it. I don't know any more than that.

S.M. Stirling said...

Pewter has a low melting point.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Both: I looked up the melting point of pewter: it ranges from 338-446 F, depending on the metals used for a particular batch of pewter. I like how modern pewter is made without lead, to avoid any risk to people if used for food and drink.

Ad astra! Sean