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Krono
Konteau, a Krono or time traveler, visits Deimos, Mar's smaller moon, on vacation, but soon faces the mystery of a whole boro's disappearance
- GenresScience Fiction
202 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1988
34 people want to read
About the author
Charles L. Harness
92 books24 followersAlso credited as Charles Harness.
Charles Leonard Harness was born December 29, 1915 in Colorado City TX. After an abortive stint at Texas Christian University, studying to be a preacher, he moved on to George Washington University in Washington DC, where he received a B.S. degree in 1942, and a law degree in 1946. He married in 1938, and he and wife Nell have a daughter and a son. He worked as a mineral economist for the US Bureau of Mines, 1941-47, then became a patent attorney, first with American Cyanamid (1947-1953), then with W.R. Grace & Co. (1953-1981). His first story, ‘‘Time Trap’’, appeared in Astounding (8/48), and he went on to write a number of well-regarded SF stories, many involving future trials and patent attorneys. A series of patent office spoofs/stories (some co-written with Theodore L. Thomas) appeared under the pseudonym Leonard Lockhard, beginning with ‘‘Improbable Profession’’ (Astounding 9/52). His first published novel, Flight Into Yesterday (aka The Paradox Men), first appeared as a 1949 novella, and was expanded in 1953. The Rose, his most famous novella, appeared as a book in 1966. It was followed by Wagnerian space opera The Ring of Ritornel (1968), Wolfhead (1978), The Catalyst (1980), Firebird (1981), The Venetian Court (1982), Redworld (1986), Krono (1988), Lurid Dreams (1990), and Lunar Justice (1991). His short fiction has been collected in An Ornament to His Profession (1998), which includes not only ‘‘The Rose’’ but a new novella as well.
Charles Leonard Harness was born December 29, 1915 in Colorado City TX. After an abortive stint at Texas Christian University, studying to be a preacher, he moved on to George Washington University in Washington DC, where he received a B.S. degree in 1942, and a law degree in 1946. He married in 1938, and he and wife Nell have a daughter and a son. He worked as a mineral economist for the US Bureau of Mines, 1941-47, then became a patent attorney, first with American Cyanamid (1947-1953), then with W.R. Grace & Co. (1953-1981). His first story, ‘‘Time Trap’’, appeared in Astounding (8/48), and he went on to write a number of well-regarded SF stories, many involving future trials and patent attorneys. A series of patent office spoofs/stories (some co-written with Theodore L. Thomas) appeared under the pseudonym Leonard Lockhard, beginning with ‘‘Improbable Profession’’ (Astounding 9/52). His first published novel, Flight Into Yesterday (aka The Paradox Men), first appeared as a 1949 novella, and was expanded in 1953. The Rose, his most famous novella, appeared as a book in 1966. It was followed by Wagnerian space opera The Ring of Ritornel (1968), Wolfhead (1978), The Catalyst (1980), Firebird (1981), The Venetian Court (1982), Redworld (1986), Krono (1988), Lurid Dreams (1990), and Lunar Justice (1991). His short fiction has been collected in An Ornament to His Profession (1998), which includes not only ‘‘The Rose’’ but a new novella as well.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 22, 2014
‘On an ecologically seared Earth, James Konteau is a veteran krono, a professional time traveller. His job is to ease the overpopulation crisis by establishing new colonies in Earth’s prehistory, long before human beings evolved. But his job has lost all meaning, for Konteau is a lone and troubled man haunted by his own past.
Now, suddenly, his future is also in turmoil: a time quake has reportedly ripped through distant eons, destroying one of Konteau’s colonies. Framed for the disaster, Konteau is hunted by authorities, defying all the powers of technology and politics to escape back through the misty ages on a complex mission of death, justice, love – and incredible destiny...’
Blurb from the 1989 Avon paperback edition
Harness’ late work is variable, but this harks back to the complexity and poetry of his great works. The plot is, for Harness, fairly straightforward. James Konteau is an engineer working for an agency who relieve Earth’s crippling population problem by establishing ‘boro’s in the primeval past, and shifting the excess population there.
Whilst on leave in Xanadu, a hedonistic resort built inside the Martian moon of Deimos, Konteau is introduced – by his friend Zeke Ditmars – to a woman, Denmie, a woman who convinces him to prepare a report on the feasibility of siting a colony in Mars’ prehistory at a time when the Red Planet had an atmosphere, water and a primitive ecology.
Elsewhere in the system, the Overlord has died and the Vyrs are heading to a convocation to decide on who should be the next Overlord.
Konteau begins to have nightmares and wakes up convinced that a timequake is imminent and that a boro – Boro 585 – will be lost. His subsequent report is not taken seriously, but when the boro does vanish, Konteau is summoned to see the Vyr (widely thought to be the next in line for Overlord) and is strongly warned not to go looking for the lost boro.
Konteau does of course and – it’s not important why – ends up on a train with Edgar Allan Poe.
As is usual for Harness, there are literary and other references woven through the text, some of which are explained in Konteau’s dream.
He dreams of playing chess with a cowled figure and the initial D is important. Chess is a genre which has appeared elsewhere in harness’ work, although here the symbolism is similar to the knight who plays chess with Death in Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’.
The psychological evaluation which Konteau receives is that D stands for Daleth in the Phoenician alphabet and means ‘door’. there is a door in his dream, behind the cowled figure and he and two others leave through it, although a part anagram of Daleth is Death and at least one of the party will die.
There is also a reference to the English political economist and demographer, Thomas Malthus, whom the Vyr quotes in explaining why there is a population crisis, and also the poetry of Goethe.
Arguably, one might fault Harness for not exploring further arguments of the Malthusians whose beliefs are that society should be attempting to reduce the population rather than syphoning them off into the past, and it is not explained why evidence of these past civilisations is not about today.
There a flashes of the old magic and it is an entertaining read, and although one cannot say that Harness is back to his old form here he is still capable of creating his complex mix of the scientific and metaphysical.
Some of the Harness cliches are here, such as the prophecies, the time-paradoxes, the weird religions and the futuristic baroque landscapes against which he sets his tales.
Now, suddenly, his future is also in turmoil: a time quake has reportedly ripped through distant eons, destroying one of Konteau’s colonies. Framed for the disaster, Konteau is hunted by authorities, defying all the powers of technology and politics to escape back through the misty ages on a complex mission of death, justice, love – and incredible destiny...’
Blurb from the 1989 Avon paperback edition
Harness’ late work is variable, but this harks back to the complexity and poetry of his great works. The plot is, for Harness, fairly straightforward. James Konteau is an engineer working for an agency who relieve Earth’s crippling population problem by establishing ‘boro’s in the primeval past, and shifting the excess population there.
Whilst on leave in Xanadu, a hedonistic resort built inside the Martian moon of Deimos, Konteau is introduced – by his friend Zeke Ditmars – to a woman, Denmie, a woman who convinces him to prepare a report on the feasibility of siting a colony in Mars’ prehistory at a time when the Red Planet had an atmosphere, water and a primitive ecology.
Elsewhere in the system, the Overlord has died and the Vyrs are heading to a convocation to decide on who should be the next Overlord.
Konteau begins to have nightmares and wakes up convinced that a timequake is imminent and that a boro – Boro 585 – will be lost. His subsequent report is not taken seriously, but when the boro does vanish, Konteau is summoned to see the Vyr (widely thought to be the next in line for Overlord) and is strongly warned not to go looking for the lost boro.
Konteau does of course and – it’s not important why – ends up on a train with Edgar Allan Poe.
As is usual for Harness, there are literary and other references woven through the text, some of which are explained in Konteau’s dream.
He dreams of playing chess with a cowled figure and the initial D is important. Chess is a genre which has appeared elsewhere in harness’ work, although here the symbolism is similar to the knight who plays chess with Death in Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’.
The psychological evaluation which Konteau receives is that D stands for Daleth in the Phoenician alphabet and means ‘door’. there is a door in his dream, behind the cowled figure and he and two others leave through it, although a part anagram of Daleth is Death and at least one of the party will die.
There is also a reference to the English political economist and demographer, Thomas Malthus, whom the Vyr quotes in explaining why there is a population crisis, and also the poetry of Goethe.
Arguably, one might fault Harness for not exploring further arguments of the Malthusians whose beliefs are that society should be attempting to reduce the population rather than syphoning them off into the past, and it is not explained why evidence of these past civilisations is not about today.
There a flashes of the old magic and it is an entertaining read, and although one cannot say that Harness is back to his old form here he is still capable of creating his complex mix of the scientific and metaphysical.
Some of the Harness cliches are here, such as the prophecies, the time-paradoxes, the weird religions and the futuristic baroque landscapes against which he sets his tales.
August 23, 2011
La trama è troppo complicata, con troppe "spiegazioni tecniche" molto pesanti. A questo si aggiungono i cambi di tempo nella narrazione, prima al presente, ogni tanto al passato prossimo, poi al passato remoto. Non una lettura piacevole.
December 26, 2025
A (just barely) enjoyable time-travel, space-opera type story with the usual Charles Harness motifs. All the soft science mumbo jumbo is fun. The beginning and end are the best bits. Kinda slow in the middle.
February 11, 2019
5/10. Solo leí este de Harness, no cayeron más en mis manos (ni me dejó tan buen recuerdo como para buscarle)
May 30, 2016
No le doy menos estrellas porque no puedo. Totalmente decepcionante, sin lógica, lleno de deux ex machinas..... Horrible
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews