Technicolor Time Machine

by Harry Harrison

L. M. Greenspan, the head of ailing Climatic Studios, gave producer Garney Hendrickson, five days to get a major movie in the can - and Climactic out of it.
Impossible?
Not with Professor Hewett's miraculous presto chango time machine, the answer to a Hollywood producer's prayer.
Nipping back to AD 1,000 with a whole film crew and two glam stars, Barney sets out to prove that the Vikings discovered America five hundred years before Columbus - and to film the event in glorious technicolor. But it's not as easy as it sounds, as they realise when history lets them down and their Viking Columbus fails to show up in the New World...

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Forget that for a minute,” Barney said. “Come over here and sit down a minute, have a drink, and I’ll tell you a saga for a change.”

Along with Poul Anderson’s brilliant Call Me Joe this book was one of my early gateways to SF, back when my age was still measured in single digits. (It also taught me what a Möbius strip is, but that’s beside the point). Funnily enough, since then I forgot about it for a while, just occasionally fondly remembering that story about time traveling and making a Viking movie truly “on location” - but the name of the book and the author were forgotten in the recesses of memory.

“The way is open to take a company back in time and film an accurate, full-length, wide-screen, realistic, low-budget high-quality historical.”

And then - and then, dear readers, I somehow stumbled upon it in a random Google search inspired by a documentary on the Vikings that I recently watched. And The Technicolor Time Machine was just like that back in my life, one of the books that opened the world of SF for me, and with the trepidation I dived right back into it, holding my breath and hoping that after almost three decades the magic would still hold.

And you know what? It still does.

“So there is a Norse settlement here in Epaves Bay in the eleventh century because traces of it were found in the twentieth century. So you could say there is a circle in time with no beginning or end. We came here to leave traces to find here to lead us to come here to leave traces…”

Yes, it’s a pretty dated work of SF, a product of its time and attitudes - but take it exactly as a product of its times (still infinitely more refined than 1005 A.D.) and don’t take offense at some off-color jokes; instead just go along on the fun ride this at times ridiculous and satirical SF over-the-top pulp takes you on and savor these time-stamped gems:

“Five hundred years before Columbus was born Viking ships had sailed from Greenland and discovered what they called Vinland which has since been proven to be part of North America, The first expedition was led by Eric the Red—”

“Kill that idea! You want to get us blacklisted with a commie picture?”

What I love is the unabashed fun this story conveys. It knows it’s silly and ridiculous - as only a decision to save a failing movie studio helmed by a repulsive executive by using a time machine to go back to Viking times and film cheaply and quickly (because time travel and the fact that your leading man can be paid in whiskey) on spatial and temporal location can be - and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a comic and pulpy satire both on Hollywood and on the time-travel stories and it just rolls along with its fun premise, not trying to change the world (although, perhaps, it’s characters actually unknowingly do that latter bit). I mean, why not put the Saga of the Greenlanders to film? The producer for a struggling film company, Barney Hendrickson (or Bjarni Herjolfsson if you please), does not let the strangeness of the idea deter him from the only financially plausible way to save the floundering studio.

“Well why not? If he hadn’t been half potted, drinking on the shore of this ancient sea with a man who should have been dead for a thousand years, it would never have occurred to him.”

Harry Harrison was a prolific writer with a well-honed sense of humor. In a serious mood, he could be a bit subversive, as his more “serious” alternative history Viking books show (see my review of his The Hammer and the Cross). In a “I’m just taking the piss” mood, we get the fun gem of The Technicolor Time Machine.

“There may be some difficulty in locating a bilingual English-Old Norse notary—”

It’s a brief book - remember the time when SF novels did not have to be 400-page doorstoppers? - and it merrily charges along, briskly paced, from Hollywood to the Orkney Islands to Canadian coast, from the 20th to the 11th centuries, and never loses its steam or its marbles. It’s streamlined and simple and yet clever and fun, and a reading day well-spent.

“This is my life work,” Hewett said, waving his hand roughly in the direction of the toilet.
“What kind of life work is that?”
“He means the machines and apparatus, he’s just not pointing very well.”

And I still fragging love it. My childhood self loved the time travel, and stable time loops, and time paradoxes, and a few mentions of trilobites and the Möbius strip (seriously, mind-boggling once you think of the implications with a fevered brain of a 9-year-old). And my adult self appreciates a well-crafted fun and a bit silly SF story which does not strive to change your world but rather to provide a pleasant diversion, perhaps on a rainy day.

“It exists. Saying it doesn’t cannot alter the fact. The same thing is true of your diagram, it exists.”
“But—where did it come from?”
“If you must have a source, you may say that it came from the same place that the missing side of the Mobius strip has gone to.”

4 happy reminiscent stars.

“Here we go, Vikings,” he said happily. “Let’s go settle Vinland.”

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time-travel stories come in two main varieties. There are the paradoxical ones, like Back to the Future or The End of Eternity, where your actions can change the past, creating a new future. And there are the jigsaw ones, like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and All You Zombies, where nothing can be changed, and the point is seeing the unexpected way in which it all turns out to fit together.

This book is a quite amusing jigsaw story. The mad Hungarian inventor approaches Barney Hendrickson, a down-on-his-luck movie executive, and tells him he has a time machine, or to be exact, a "vremeatron". I think Harrison got a little confused here, since the Russian word for "time" is время, and a quick search of an online English-Hungarian dictionary reveals nothing similar... I'm sorry, my pedantic instincts got the better of me there for a moment. To return to the story, Hendrickson badly needs to get a film in the can pronto, in order to avoid his studio collapsing under its debts, and the inventor convinces him that a time-machine is the perfect way to make a historical epic. Not only will be the budget be vastly reduced, they can confidently undertake to deliver it for Monday morning.

So they decide they're going to shoot a film about the Viking discovery of America in 1000 A.D, using real Vikings as extras. They sign up a huge-breasted starlet as their leading lady and a more or less sentient hunk of beefcake to play opposite her, load the vremeatron with cameras and film, and set off for the 11th century. Of course, everything goes wrong; not only that, but, since this is a jigsaw story, they repeatedly discover that they could have known in advance what was going to happen if only they'd been paying attention. But the convention in jigsaw stories is that it's always a surprise.

If you're alert enough, you've perhaps figured out by now what the final twist is. At any rate, I'm not dropping any more hints!
_____________________

[Update, Nov 16 2020]

After discussing this book with Nataliya, I had to check it out again. I found a PDF after a few minutes of googling - but alas, since I last looked at it at age 12 I have learned a bit of Old Norse, and I'm shocked to say that the Old Norse here is riddled with errors. In particular, the letter 'ð' is systematically replaced with 'o'. This is unbelievably irritating.

Ah, as Heraclitus told us, you never flick twice through the same pot-boiler...

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I should express my admiration and appreciation at the work filmmakers - screenwriters, directors, actors, musicians, special effects, time travel division, et al - do to bring us entertainment, and at all the setbacks and shenanigans they have to endure through. As an author, all I have to do is to sit down and write something, and half the time I fail even in that. Though a comedy, this book has helped open my eyes.

Constraints of time are a bit less of a bother for them, here, but everything else is very much real - added in a genuine threat of being killed by an ancient native spear, quite possibly breaking some temporal laws in the process, and almost definitely sneaking a snuff film through the censors. I came to sympathize with the lot of them, and wanted to see them succeed, and I was surprised to see how tense things could become even though there's nothing even remotely passing as an antagonist.

Had a couple good laughs, too.

On the whole, a worthy read to anyone that's a fan of time travel stories, of good comedy, or better still, both.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a romp by Harrison here, foreshadowing his Bill, The Galactic Hero spoofs and establishing himself as a social satirist. First published in 1967, TTTT has aged very well. Reviewing this one is difficult, but here goes. A desperate movie studio in California is only days or weeks from bankruptcy and they definitely need some serious assets to hold off the bank. Luckily, the rapacious owner learns about a professor working on a time machine. After some back and forth negotiations, they decide to film a viking film-- Viking Columbus-- about vikings coming and establishing a settlement in the New World around 1000 C.E. Further, they can use actual vikings and such as extras, and only paying them bits of silver and lots of Jack Daniels!

Thanks to the time machine, the cast and crew can travel back in time for years and yet return to the 20th century in less than a week. Lets just say Harrison has a lot of fun with time travel paradox tropes here! Setting off with a linguist, they establish contact, shanghai a viking and bring him back to L.A. to sign a contract; a few days later, the cast and crew are ready and off they go...

If you like Harrison's sense of humor, this should be on your TBR pile. I liked it more than Bill, The Galactic Hero and about as much as the The Stainless Steel Rat. It was also fun that Harrison's later trilogy The Hammer and the Cross, published in 1993, contained some easter eggs from this one, like a viking named Rognar. While The Hammer and the Cross was a 'serious' alternative history set in about the same time as this one, TTTT had no intention of being serious at all. Besides playing with time travel tropes, Harrison skewers Hollywood and film production in general, beef cake actors and bimbo actresses. Great fun! 3.5 stars, rounding up!

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the most irresponsible time travel story that I've read to date. It's a no consequences adventure story that mucks about with only the fun possibilities of time travel, so buckle up, forget about all your ethical questions and spare no thought for the preservation of the timeline!

Summary:
- Professor needs funding to turn his mini prototype time machine into a full size working time sled.
- Barney is a director for Climactic, a film company at risk of being shut down if their next flick isn't a roaring success.
- LM is the producer at Climactic and Barney convinces LM to endorse the Professor's project and to payroll a new movie using the technology to film history "on location."

So after a little demonstration LM greenlights the project and starts outlining the film with Barney. On a test run, they kidnap a viking and with a little training (and payment in bourbon) they turn him into a movie star. Only most of the characters that our star viking will interact with are not actors.

Can you picture the mess this is going to make of the timeline as these cads go back to film battles that they instigate? Not to mention that the catering team serve "French fried trilobyte" as a delicacy and that eventually some of the crew become features of the viking sagas.

That's kind of what makes this wild ass story so quirky and entertaining. Even the earliest Doctor Who stories were considerate of the impact of meddling with the timeline and I think everything else I've read either aims to preserve the timeline or claims that no significant change can be affected.

I'm not sure that I ever hoped for these crazy bastards to succeed. You get the sense that the only possible consequence which they will face is blowing the movie budget and I was pretty much rooting for that outcome.

I could see this story as an old black and white film, it has the right kind of plot, characters, and comic approach for it. Old scifi time travel shows more often than not went into the past instead of the future for budget reasons and here we have a book about a tv team that actually get hold of time travel technology and what do they use it for? To travel into the past. It's just too classic!

There is an early statement made by the professor which claims that it requires "infinitely" more power to go into the future, which can't quite be technically accurate because he then demonstrates doing so. Swap out "infinitely" for "a lot." I was thinking that this would cause problems when they try to return home but this concern was countered by treating the trip like an elastic band, or bungee cord. The travellers return through the same channel carved out in the departure and it is explained that because of the existence of point "k" the point "e" (end point) can never be before the point "b" (beginning point).

There are a few things that I thought were done really well in this story. One is using the time machine to save time. Jumping back to spend months getting the work done and returning moments later to submit that work. Another that I quite like that is you can't just jump about from time to time because of the bungee jump effect; you must jump and return before jumping to another time which meant that some current time was always being sacrificed between jumps.

When LM agrees to a contract which pays the film crew for as long as they actually spend working in the past, regardless of how much time has passed in the present, he apparently doesn’t get it, because when the scriptwriter goes back for 8 weeks then returns an hour later he argues persistently that he's only willing to pay for the hour.

Also, this story does have fun with a couple of great causality loop examples. The drawing that is never actually drawn in particular is fantastic and absolutely no explanation is given.

"You disrupt these people’s lives completely for your cinematic drivel, then you avoid the consequences of your actions"

There is one person in the time travel film crew who ocasionally pipes up about the film and its impact being bad. Responsible for the quote above is the philologist brought along to study the cultures, liaise with the locals, then advise with filming and safety, (which was a little weird to me because I had misinterpreted philology as phrenology until I looked it up after finishing the book). This guy draws a connection to something that their captive viking says and discovers that they were already a part of the history books before they arrived.

“You can’t stop the world and get off, so you just have to learn to live on it.”

There's a bit of rough dialogue about a woman who gets pregnant and is told she should consider not bringing the baby back to present time because she wasn't married and... "there are names for people like that." Plus being a story set in Hollywood of the 60s there's a fair amount of attention to jug size when it comes to hiring and directing the female lead actress. These are certainly unfortunate remnants of the time.

You can tell that nobody here learned anything about meddling in history because at the end they talk about the possibility of trying another film by travelling into the past. I had to laugh at the idea and I liked the implicit way it was told, so I'm going to end my review by quoting the final paragraph of the book:

But L.M. was smiling and not listening. “And that,” he said, “gives me an idea for the absolutely infinitive religious picture of all time, a theme that positively cannot miss!”

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'è una buona fantascienza basata sui viaggi nel tempo dietro questo romanzo chiaramente umoristico, comico e sarcastico nei confronti di Hollywood.
Conoscevo Harrison per aver letto di lui "La città degli Aztechi", un romanzo di solida e seria SF con qualche spunto comico. Non mi aspettavo questo tono dal racconto.
C'è un regista, mediocre, e una società di produzione in via di fallimento. Ma il regista presenta alla società questo scienziato, che ha bisogno di fondi per far funzionare la sua macchina del tempo, che al momento può fare salti di soli pochi secondi. E nessuno, ovviamente, ne capisce qualcosa, a parte lo scienziato.
A cosa pensano? Facciamo un film usando la macchina del tempo! Un film sui vichinghi e sulla colonizzazione dell'america, sul Vinland. Giuro che, una volta compreso il lato farsesco della storia, è stata tutta un godimento, scena dietro scena. Fino al gran finale, dell'avvenimento che è e basta, esiste non creato e senza causa. E fino alla comica finale, le ultime due frasi. Il senso non è chiarissimo, ma il richiamo a fare un film sulla crocifissione effettivamente mi è venuto subito in mente.
4 stelle.

[Julie Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was silly without being childish and lightly clever without being overly complicated. I enjoyed the bit of character development without a crazy world-shattering ending. I had a good time reading this one as it was pretty funny. I really enjoyed how it seemed to be in Archer-time. You know, that show has an interesting element where it doesn't seem to place itself in any given era. This book, oddly enough, had that effect on their present-day time, the time the book started in. I know it's probably the year it was written, but there doesn't seem to be a lot to suggest that other than a couple of racist terms that no one would use now. I found that to be a very nice quality of the book. The ending moved along quickly, and I'm guessing because the author was sick of writing it, he didn't know what to do with his characters through that, and he thought the reader might be ready to be done as well, and he'd be correct there. Overall I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a weird mix of Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde with some Vikings thrown in.

[Jersy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both film making and time travel are true buzzwords for me, so of course I had to read this and luckily both topics were the backbone of this book, showing a lot of production and including a time travel paradox. It was interesting to see the cast and crew deal with the circumstances even if the humor wasn't always spot on for me. I liked the plot, but I had my issues with the tone, preventing me to fully engage with the novel. I would describe it as "mid-century masculine", with pretty impersonal, busineslike relationships and interactions and Vikings and the only female character that would probably be portrayed differently today. The dry descriptional humor in the writing is an aspect of that which worked for me, as is how concise the book is, but I wouldnt call it especially engaging or deep.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
Harry Harrison's The Technicolor Time Machine
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 16-19, 2020

This bk is copyrighted 1967, this edition is from 1981. I probably saw it sometime between those 2 dates & thought it was too trashy for my increasingly literate tastes. Now, 40+ yrs later, I think it's thoroughly enjoyable, I'm glad I'm finally getting around to reading Harrison.

""This is my life's work," Hewett said, waving his hand roughly in the direction of the toilet.

""What kind of work is that?"

""He means the machines and apparatus, he's just not pointing very well." - p 9

Ha ha!

"My vremeatron—from vreme, the Serbo-Coratian for 'time,' in honor of my maternal grandmother, who was from Mali Lossinj—is a workable time machine."" - p 10

Tell me another one; ell me a; xx. Tell m; ther on. When were we?

""Background material," Barney told him. "We can rough out the main story lines now and you can fill in the details later. L.M. suggested a saga, and we can't go wrong with that. We open in the Orkney Islands around the year 1000 when there is plenty of trouble. You have Norse settlers and Viking raiders and things are really hotting up. Maybe you open with a Viking raid, the dragon ship gliding acorss the dark waters, you know."

""Like opening a Western with the bankrobbers silently riding into town?"

""That's the idea. The hero is the chief Viking, or maybe the head man ashore, you'll work that out. So there's some fighting, then some more of the same, so the hero decides to move his bunch to the new world, Vinland, which he has just heard about."

""Like the winning of the West?"

""Right. Then the voyage, the storm, the shipwreck, the landing, the first settlement, the battle with the Indians. Think big because we're going to have plenty of extras. End on a high note, looking into the sunset."" - p 44

You get the idea. Time machine invented, Hollywood uses it to make an historical saga in a less expensive way than usual to save a failing studio.

"You can't make a picture in a week!" - p 50

But, of course, you can, I do it all the time. Roger Corman probably did too & he was great at it. Here're some samples of mine:

492. a. "Double Embrace"
- a celebration of the in-person meeting of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & Libby Ramer from June 19 to June 26, 2017E.V.
- A Romantic Experimental Music Documentary Comedy
- 1700 X 1275
- 1:50:49
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/1GDXxp_g168
b. "An afternoon in Casa WHO UNIT?"
- the improvisation section excerpted from the above
- 1:04:01
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/AnAfterno...

274. "START" (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE edit)
- made as a collaborative project by approximately the same group of people as 233. "Dead & Breakfast" & 260. "Discontinuous Universe"
- as w/ its predeccessors, this project began when Kelly Stiles (unfortunately w/o April Gilmore this time) came to visit Pittsburgh. Kelly & Morgan & tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE thought of a rough outline for a plot wch the whole Sylli G(roup) then fleshed out - often improvisationally while shooting & responding to our many locations.
- as w/ "Dead & Breakfast", the cast performed multiple roles:
Kelly Stiles: initial inspiration, camera, Gorgamesh, sock puppets, costuming, gameboard design, editing (not used in this version) etc..
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE:initial inspiration, camera, MEGALO, Ogre, Butcher of a Satie piano practice, gameboard design, animation, editing, sock puppets, bathroom corpse in "Dead & Breakfast" psychic flashback, 'Teenage Boy' in "Discontinuous Universe" kitchen psychic flashback, latex mask collection, etc..
Morgan Cahn: initial inspiration, camera, Brexskelren Ethetal, WASP, Dag's audience at the Fortuary, Cliff Hanger hooded figure, costuming, gameboard design, sock puppets, house set design etc..
Matthu Stull: initial inspiration, camera, Professor, Prostheseus, Minotaur, music in the "Prostheseus in the Labyrinth" scene, sock puppets, etc..
Michael Loomis: initial inspiration, camera, Pope Dag Hammerskull, Cliff Hanger hooded figure, 'Teenage Boy' in "Discontinuous Universe" kitchen psychic flashback, etc..
Thanks to:
Teresa: camera, Seductress, Giant Owl, Ogre stunt double, sock puppets
Aairyn: camera, sock puppets
the Boat People: Evan, Babz, Patrick, Elli
the mischievous kids:
1st generation: Genly Ai, Ivan
2nd generation: Reyghan, FreeSoul
their parents:
Kalie & D2K - for Reyghan & Genly Ai permission
Alan & Nancy - for Ivan permission
Yvette - for FreeSoul permission
Craig - Guy running by w/ Left-Handed Monkey Wrench in The Alley
Heinz History Center
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History Invertebrate Zoology Lab:
Insect Cult Members: Walt, Vanessa, Dave, Tim
Robin: protector of the Giant Owl
2 kids in park: protectors of the Giant Owl
Michael's Parisian Friend: camera
Homer & Greenbean: Guinea Pig Oracle(s)
Sarah: Sphinx voice-over
Phipps Conservatory & the Chihuly sculptures
Cathedral of Learning Nationality Rooms
Allegheny Cemetary
Schenley Park
Paris
Pittsburgh
Excelsior Sound Effects CDs
"75 Spectacular Sound Effects" CD
François Rabbath: bass in 2 "Dead & Breakfast" psychic flashbacks of corpses
- mini-DV -> DVD/1/2" VHS cassette
- 1:16:19
- shot in september & october & edited in october & november of 2007
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/RkOyr6cFaz4
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/START_201810

OK, those took longer than a week once one includes post-production. There are some that took less time but I don't think you'd be as impressed by them (not that you'll be impressed by the above either necessarily).

Here's a link to a shorter one that only took a week, more or less exactly:

{240. "Dead & Breakfast"
- this was a collaboration between 8 people made over a 6 day period
- the initial concept & screenplay was from Kelly Stiles, Morgan Cahn, & Matthu Stull
- the acting & camera work was by all participants:
Kelly Stiles: Beaumont, the stuttering guest
Morgan Cahn: Mrs. Danby, the Bed & Breakfast operator
Matthu Stull: Lorno Katazian, the tv weatherman
Jim Lemon: Ringo, the ski bum guest
Sarah Stanek: George, the other ski bum guest
April Gilmore: Jo-Jo Pumpkin, a 'crazy' guest
Daniel Prince: Randy, Mrs. Danby's nephew
Party Teen on Couch #2: Mr. Horn, a neighbor
- the editing was mainly done by Kelly Stiles, Party Teen on Couch #2, & Sara Stanek
- w/ possible input from Matthu Stull & Daniel Prince
- as Party Teen on Couch #2, I also thought of the ending & a few other scenes
- mini-dv
- 37:18
- november '03
- this is enclosed in brackets because my participation was minor in contrast to that of Kelly, Morgan, & Matthu's}
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/TCGBnvAyYao
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/deadbreak...

That was made before the mainstream release of the same name.

One last example of one that was made quickly that might not be of much interest to people but that serves my point here:

607. "Coal & tENT: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & Coal Hornet discuss IMPROVisation: 2019.11.24"
- 1:06:31
- 1080p
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/KX4QDzHpyJo
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/coaltent

Ok, enough of that.

"["]Charley Chang went back in time to a nice quiet spot where he worked very hard to produce this script. He stayed as long as he needed, then we brought him back to almost the same moment when he left. Hardly any time at all elapsed while he was away, so from your point of view it looks like it took just an hour to produce a complete script."" - p 74

There he goes, giving away my secret. That's how I've managed to make 615 movies, publish 1984 texts & 223 audio works. The downside is that I'm still only 16 to the outside world but I look like I'm 66.

Have you ever read an Icelandic Saga? It's kindof like reading Jim Thompson. The author, presumably, was studying the subject for writing this bk. One might say that passages like the following are parody.

"["] They also burned, in his own house, Audun the son of Smidkel at Bergen." He stopped and nodded his head sagely as though he felt he had communicated vital information.

""Well?" Barney asked, puzzled. "What does all that mean?"

"Ottar looked at him and frowned. "Smidkel married Thorodda, my sister."" - p 104

Of the Icelandic Sagas, I've only read Grettir's Saga so I'm far from an expert but Grettir's was completely psychopathically violent and the Vikings depicted herein in Harrison's bk aren't any different. Here's a sample from Grettir's Saga chosen just by flipping thru the bk for a few seconds:

"Grettir spoke this stanza:

"Some men have tongues
too long and too ready to speak;
that's how they earn
harsh revenge.
But few have done
more evil than you,
and now your life is forfeit,
your long journey is over.

"Thorbjorn answered, 'I think I am no closer to death, for all your babbling.'

"Gretir said, 'So far my predictions have never had to outlive their promise, and this one is not likely to, either, Defend yourself, if you want to; you will never have a better opportunity.'

"Then Grettir struck at Thorbjorn, who raised his hand with the intention of warding the sword off, but it caught his arm just above the wrist and then swept on at his neck, cutting his head off. The traders said that he was a dealer of heavy blows, as the king's retainers were supposed to be, but they thought it no loss that Thorbjorn had been killed, for he had been quarrelsome and spiteful."

- p 82, Grettir's Saga, University of Toronto Press

Harrison really does seem to have done research into the language, the sagas, & to whatever other history might've been available about the time & people. W/ that in mind, I'm inclined to believe that the following might be based in fact but, WHEW!, it seems harsh even for the Vikings.

""What does he have against becoming a Christian?"

""Olaf would submit him first to the ordeal of the snake. In this the mouthpiece of a lurhorn, the larger brass war horn, is forced down the throat of the victim, a poisonous snake is put in the bell of the horn, which is then sealed, and the horn is heated until the snake seeks escape down the pagan's throat."" - p 127

""Hananu Sousta handartokin,"* Ottar roared, and his men shouted back happily as they ran to swing the ship about for the last leg of her voyage."

[..]

"*"Come on! The last bit of work!"" - p 175

That was a taste of Old Norse. While you won't learn the whole language from reading this bk you might pick up enuf phrases to help you get thru traveling back in time to the era as a tourist.

As the movie shapes up the director has an inspiration about who would be good to create the soundtrack.

""Spiderman Spinneke woud love it."

""He might at that," Barney squinted as an idea hit him, then snapped his fingers. "That's what I was thinking about, the Spiderman. He plays all kinds of weirdo instruments in that beat joint the Fungus Grotto. I heard him once, backed up with a brass section and a drum."

"Val nodded. "I've been there. He's supposed to be the only jazz tuba player in captivity. It's the most terrible noise I ever heard."" - pp 200-201

NOW, given my own personal Low Classical & booed usic orientation & given my on-going fascination w/ instruments, that immediately perked my interest. As far as I can tell, "Spiderman Spinneke" is a completely fictitous character not modeled on anyone in particular, porbably modeled on experimental music of the recent past to the writing of this bk SO that makes me wonder who might've been obliquely an inspiration as of the copyrighting of the bk in 1967. Since the novel's 20th century location is Hollywood & environs I'll confine my guesses to the same.

Roger Bobo: tubaist for the LA Philharmonic, someone w/ a somewhat avant-garde solo repertoire

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: they wd've ben fairly early in their career but already notorious

Harry Partch: an instrument inventor

Lou Harrison: not exactly an instrument inventor but someone who used some home-made gamelan instruments

Dean Elliott and his Big Band: their "Zounds! What Sounds!" record combining big band music with sound effects came out in 1963

Of course, there are many more possibilities but these are the prominent ones that occur to me 'off the top of my head'. Speaking of 'off the top of my head':

"["]Do you know what a paradox is, Dallas?"

""The Spanish barber who shaves every guy in town who doesn't shave himself—so who shaves the barber?"" - p 217

The paradox referred to is the "Barber Paradox" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_... ). For a heretical (& somewhat silly) spin-off of that witness my "Haircut Paradox" ( https://youtu.be/pXMl1ZbMm9l ).

While I'm linking to my movies (gotta advertise them SOMEHOW) I might as well take advantage of this:

""Sure, Australia. They have these natives there, what they call Abos, and a witch doctor was spinning this stick around his head on the end of a piece of string so it made the noise."

""A bullroarer, of course. A lot of primitive tribes use them and they are supposed to have magical qualities.["]" - p 226

& a Maori friend of mine demonstrates one here: https://youtu.be/gPOFMfbtRmc?t=325 as part of my "Avicenna's Floating Maori" movie. The Maori name for the bullroarer is "Purerehua". Aren't you glad you asked?

""These are the Icelandic Sagas, in the original Old Norse in which they were written. Of course most of them were just verbal history for about two hundred years, before they were transcribed, but it is amazing how accurate they can be. If I might read you a bit from the 'Thorfinn Karlsefni Saga' and 'The Greenlanders Story.'" - p 247

I assume that those were things that the author used for research material. Intrigued, I just ordered The Sagas of Icelanders, the largest affordable collection of these sagas that I cd find online. Can't learn too much now can we?

All in all, this was an excellent read: fun AND satisfactory for the curious mind. Recommended.

[Matthew Sargent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Technically, this review is for "The Time Machined Saga" as it was serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine from March-May 1967. I picked up the three Analog issues somewhat randomly at a book fair, mostly based on the title and the fact I was able to find all three parts of the story.

I really enjoyed the idea of using time-travel to film on-location period movies and to make film production almost instant from the perspective of anyone in the present. The premise kind of falls apart after that though. I mean, if you've invented a time machine, why would you use it to save a failing film company? Most of the techno-babble and explanation of time-travel seemed pretty shaky, essentially telling the reader (and literally the characters) to not ask to many questions and just accept what it is.

It was kind of a fun read, though. There were some interesting characters (but too many characters overall, I thought) and some clever writing. I just kept wanting it to be better, because I know there's more potential in this premise.

[Amy Gourley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A broke movie company decides to use a time machine to go back in time and film a movie with real Vikings. I love time travel books. Of course, everything doesn't go as planned. The book was written in 1967 so it was also fun to see the stuff that wouldn't have happened today. I did some reading on the novel and found that it was first published as a serial in Analog magazine in 1967. My husband's father had tons of old sci fi magazines that we now have so I looked through them and found this story which I thought was pretty cool.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It feels slightly churlish to slate this book. Harry Harrison in Pulp mode can write anything between forgettable nonsense to complete, idiotic genius. If you are looking for the latter, you have Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers to enjoy, as for the former this is right up your street.
The plot is entertaining enough, using a time machine to make a historical movie, but the characters are bland even for a pulp novel and we're not given the glorious fun and foolishness that Harrison is often capable of. The character relationships don't really move very much and no-one really surprises us.

In most respects it's the plot itself that is mostly the let down. Everything is rather too convenient and linear, all too few banana skins and twists. Oddly, even though it's only 172 pages the plot somehow manages to lumber when you'd expect a sprint.

Is it fun? Yes, fun enough. It doesn't outstay its welcome or pretend to be something it's not. But the worst crime of all is that it fails to live up to its own promise - or the capability of its author.
Perfect for: A palate cleanser after something weighty. Taking on the train on a boring journey.

[Simon Forward · Rating 4 out of 5]

'SF rarely comes funnier than this' states the Observer on the cover of my copy. Not sure I'd go along with that ;-) but maybe that was the case in 1968 and ultimately this is still a joy to read. Undoubtedly coloured by memories of the first time I'd read it and it presents an unavoidably dated picture of the movie-making business (to say nothing of a stereotypical view of Vikings), but the author's clearly having such unabashed fun with the brilliantly simple central concept that it's impossible not to be whisked along for the ride. As on my first read, I wonder how the time-travelling film crew managed to capture enough footage to concoct an entire feature - what with only the one cameraman and all - but there are more holes in an average to good Doctor Who episode and that's been at the time travel business for longer. Few laugh out loud moments, but some brilliant flourishes and consistently light and entertaining and the Technicolor in the title is a well-deserved label.

[Peri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably one of the few people that likes this Harry Harrison book better than the Stainless Steel Rat stories. It's such good fun. I love that the main characters use a marvelous invention like a time machine to make a madcap attempt to save a failing movie studio. The story is so utterly ridiculous that it almost feels real. All you need to say is there's an honest to goodness viking turned movie star who gets paid in Jack Daniels and a big battle scene where Native Americans are repelled with tear gas and viking axes. That should be enough to make anyone want to find out what happens!

[Vylūnė · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever worked overtime to get things done before a deadline, you will find this book both sadly relatable and hilariously relatable. What if you had a time machine in a situation like that? Would it magically solve everything?

Although it may look like a setting of a cheap comedy, the book is actually pretty tense. It kept me glued to the story wondering what will go wrong and how every action will or will not affect the future.

The tone is rather bleak as the plot develops but the humour sort of evens things out.

Recommended for: Doctor Who fans.

[Gareth Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a re-reading, and I definitely enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I did when I was a teenager.
It's a fun time travel romp where a film company go back in time to the Viking era to film a Viking historical film - and shenanigans ensue!
It's good, worth reading but not the best time travel book - and not the best Harry Harrison book.

[Darth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
To było bardzo odprężające i inne

[Incandragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, I haven't read a Harrison book since high school, and this book was written long before that. Harrison is like a Disney ride: fast paced, fun, brightly colored, silly, and you're never really worried that things are going to go wrong.

It took me about three chapters to get into the swing of things, but eventually the he-man Vikings, barbecued trilobites, and "wotthehell time travel" won me over.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe my rating is a little higher because I had such low expectations for this book. I had the feeling that Harry Harrison wrote in a kind of noir style, which I don't care for. Instead, I found it to be more pulp-ish than noir-ish. Still not my favorite, but if the subject is good, I can excuse pulp. This just happened to hit my sweet spot of time travel, sci-fi (which I guess all time travel stories are) and Hollywood parody. Don't expect great literature, but it was a fun story.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to a radio play made of this novel. It was pretty well done, although the volume wasn't great at times. Some voices were too low. It's an amusing series of loops through time, a great scientific discovery harnessed by a Hollywood movie studio. I might be a little generous with 3 stars.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly enjoyable and original pulp adventure, which is fairly clever in its use of time travel. A little old-fashioned and the characters are one-dimensional, but it moves fast and is mostly fun.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book; sharp writing (albeit slightly dodgy cover art!)

[Luigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic. You have to love time travel with its risks and paradoxes

[Illiterate Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly fun adventure.

[Marty Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fluff, but it is enjoyable fluff. No pedantic moralizing about time-travel paradoxes. Just accept them and move on.

[Książkogłowy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liczyłem na coś innego. Przede wszystkim jesteśmy od pierwszej strony już wrzuceni w główną akcje bez żadnego wstępu w zasadzie. Nie do końca jestem fanem takiego zabiegu. Natomiast i tak najbardziej zawiodłem się na tym jak z zerową ekscytacją bohaterowie reagują na fakt podróży w czasie. Jasne jest tu nacisk na przedstawienie tego jako po prostu zabawki dla korpo, dzięki której przy jeszcze większym wyzysku mogą zarabiać wielkie pieniądze. Tylko no wszyscy tu podchodzą tak bardzo w stylu ok mamy taką możliwość to tak robimy. Bez zupełnie jakiegokolwiek zachwytu i jaraniem się nową technologią dająca takie niesamowite możliwości. Nawet pod koniec gdy mamy super pokazane pętlę czasowe i rzeczy, które z nich wynikają to jeden z bohaterów kwituje to zdaniem "że jest już zmęczony gadaniem o tych pętlach". Wymieniłbym jeszcze parę uwag ale musiałbym pójść w spoilery. Uważam generalnie, że książka jest trochę za krótka przez co sporo istotnych rzeczy jest nie poruszanych. Więc wyszło dość średnio

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent way to wrap up all of your dumb time-travel shenanigans. The Mobius strip of history that this book gives us is so entertaining I was in 100% the entire time, and I'll be honest, I've always been intimidated by viking Sagas, but with the "context" I get here it could help read those!
I was really expecting a big dramatic twist where everything goes wrong, but i was pleasantly surprised with Barney's inclusion in both tales that came out of this book.

Would definitely read again, and would definitely recommend it to pulp novel and viking fans. Can't go wrong

[Blair Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time travel, Vikings, and Jack Daniels!

[Jag0da · Rating 3 out of 5]

goofy

[YourFriendlyBard · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Vacanze in Scandinavia", aka "Vinland Saga ma scritto dai Vanzina".

Però c'è da dire che, a parte qualche battuta invecchiata maluccio e una scrittura un po' sbrigativa in descrizioni e spiegazioni, come romanzo da leggere a cervello spento ho letto di peggio. Le situazioni assurde sono intrattenenti quanto basta, e personalmente apprezzo sempre l'espediente dei viaggi nel tempo, se ben utilizzato (o come in questo caso, se viene utilizzato solo e soltanto per creare una sana trashata).





PS: peccato che l'autore non abbia dato seguito al finale, sarebbe potuto uscirne qualcosa di epico.