The Time Trap

by Henry Kuttner

1939 Retro-Hugo Awards Best Novella nominee A titan of the genre, Henry Kuttner, weaves a spellbinding tale of a time-traveling archaeologist in one of the most fantastic adventures ever conceived. "[A] pomegranate popping with seeds—full of ideas."—Ray Bradbury Kent Mason is an archaeologist hopelessly lost in the desert. When he stumbles into the ruins of the ancient city of Al Bekr, he unknowingly steps into a time portal and finds himself flung into into the greatest adventure of his life. Originally written for Marvel Science Stories, Henry Kuttner spins a rambunctious story filled with more monsters, mayhem, beautiful women, unimaginable threats, and bizarre plot twists than any reader could possibly imagine.

Genres: Science Fiction

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1938

About the author

Henry Kuttner was, alone and in collaboration with his wife, the great science fiction and fantasy writer C.L. Moore, one of the four or five most important writers of the 1940s, the writer whose work went furthest in its sociological and psychological insight to making science fiction a human as well as technological literature. He was an important influence upon every contemporary and every science fiction writer who succeeded him. In the early 1940s and under many pseudonyms, Kuttner and Moore published very widely through the range of the science fiction and fantasy pulp markets.

Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, and Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant, are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. There are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature: "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."

In the early 1950s, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty finished the Baldy series in 1953). Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine, and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).

Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.

His pseudonyms include:

Edward J. Bellin
Paul Edmonds
Noel Gardner
Will Garth
James Hall
Keith Hammond
Hudson Hastings
Peter Horn
Kelvin Kent
Robert O. Kenyon
C. H. Liddell
Hugh Maepenn
Scott Morgan
Lawrence O'Donnell
Lewis Padgett
Woodrow Wilson Smith
Charles Stoddard

Reviews

[fromcouchtomoon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Time Trap tallies:
Female characters: 4
Naked female characters: 4
Naked female characters who make out with protag upon first sight: 3
Naked female characters prefacing make out session by saying some version of "I am young, I want to know love...": 2
Naked female characters covered in blood: 3
Occurrences of female characters forcibly stripped naked: Every act. I lost count. (Poor Alasa.)
Occurrence of " breasts heaving tumultuously": 1
Weapons described as looking suspiciously like my garage door opener: 1

[Jules · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you don´t have the time and the nerves to read this book - which is a wise decision – here is the short version in form of Masons secret diary:


Dear diary, I could tell you very exciting details about my fight for survival in the desert – but I won´t. Only this: I hunted a vulture! Yes, I´m that cool!
-
Dear diary, I found the ancient ruins I was looking for! But there is a storm coming up...
-
Dear diary, the storm send me back in time. Everyone speaks a dead language no one knows anymore but I speak it fluently. Yes, I´m that cool!
-
Dear diary, I met a strange woman who stripped naked, so I had to make out with her. She attacked me afterwards. Doesn´t matter, got some.
-
Dear diary, this city is ruled by a strange dude from the future. He punished a girl by stripping her naked and torturing her to death. I tried to make out with her (since she was naked) but I couldn´t reach her before she was dead. Dammit!
-
Dear diary, I freed the former ruler of this city, Alasa. Naturally, she got stripped naked and in mortal danger soon after, so I had to save her and make out with her. Twice.
-
Dear diary, we traveled through time and to the future to kill the bad guy. Alasa got caught by strange plant-creatures, was stripped naked and tortured. At least I could watch.
-
Dear diary, they brainwashed Alasa so she nude-attacked me. I thought about making out with her but it was kind of difficult. So I waited for her to normalize.
-
Dear diary, ZOMBIES AND GIANT ANTS!! Thinking about Alasa only wearing a cape. She was naked under it. Don´t know what else happened.
-
Dear diary, we went to the past again and there was a cult. They stripped Alasa naked and put her in danger. I had to make out with another naked girl first before I could save her and make out with her. Business.
-
Dear diary, back to the future! We met a strange chinese man. Fortunately, I can speak chinese fluently. Yes, I´m that cool!
-
Dear diary, we got caught again and the strange woman from the beginning stripped naked and I made out with her. Then I realised that she was a leopard once and got somehow transformed into a human. I got me some furry action!!Yes, I´m that cool!
-
Dear diary, Alasa got stripped naked and tortured again. I´m starting to enjoy this shit.
-
Dear diary, I am the smartest badass on earth! I killed the bad guy in no-time (wink) AND made out with 3 out of 4 females I met in the meantime. I could have made out with the last one as well, if she would have survived a minute longer. Amateur.
-

Not worth any time.

[Bill Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book one star only because the zero star option was not available.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Henry Kuttner wrote some great stories. This was not one of them.

[Bruno Di Giandomenico · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old style story, like they used to write in 30s. The book is from 1929, so this comes as no surprise. Very simple, although not a linear story. The tale is simple. Kent Mason, an archeologist, whilst travelling in Arabia finds himself thrown back in time to a time when Ur was just founded.
Mason is taken prisoner in a strange city, very advanced, founded by a time traveller from the year 4000 AD.
The traveller wants to rule the world, in particular a time slice, and has taken prisoner Alasa, the queen of the city.
To make a long story short, as in the usual cliché, Mason and Alasa fall in love and fight the evil traveller across time.
At least in four time of the tale, Alasa is stripped naked and shows up her bronze beauty. This must have been very exciting in 1929, laughable today, you would not get published. Again a very simple story, on a par with the stories of that period, do not expect the lost masterpiece, just a curiosity.
The characters are not very well exploited, the girl Alasa is just there to get naked but you cannot expect more from this kind of novel.

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if Kuttner was purposefully cramming every single pulp cliche into this book, but they're all there: a lost city, time machines, the speculative evolution of humanity, plant men, beast men, a plesiosaur worshipped as a god, holographic environments, a forgotten ancient South American culture, an idol designed to be a torture device, a couple of femme fatales, gargantuan ants, double-crosses, and lots of gratuitous nudity.

I kept wavering back and forth on giving the book 2 or 3 stars here. It was fun, but after a while all the nonsense just got tiresome.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only my bloody mindedness got me through this. Don't waste your time - this is even less readable than Lovecraft.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost in a desert, archeologist Kent Mason unknowingly stumbles upon the ruins of an ancient city, Al Bekr, which transports him in a time portal and into what will be an adventure of a lifetime in Henry Kuttner’s The Time Trap.

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

This simply premised and somewhat episodically crafted novella works to incorporate elements from a variety of pulp stories including monster-like creatures, female figures of a siren and damsel in distress (frequently naked without a good reason beyond because why not), and a nearly overwhelming sense of chaos within frequent action scenes. There’s a sense of camp to the narrative, which is chock full of clichés, that in retrospect speaks to the era in which this was written; the pulp style of writing is a bit all over the place flitting from concept to concept while moving the story forward at a breakneck pace, which doesn’t quite hold up to contemporary expectations for storytelling, especially as the characters exhibit minimal substance or development and are instead pieces used to progress the curious, bordering on absurd, tale. Some of the worlds presented are quite imaginative and if they had been more developed or provided greater complexity than the basic sketch provided, and perhaps offered as a collection of related stories rather than a more traditional novelized narrative, it might have made this grand adventure story more compelling and captivating to better endure changing times.

Overall, I’d give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

[Harry Blanchard · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's really hard to believe this book got on the short list for nomination of the Retro Hugo awards (it lost). This is a great read if you are in the mood for total kitsch. Otherwise, skip. I couldn't write a pastiche of pulp stories from this era that's this absurd. The action moves along, making it a quick read, that's the positive I can say, if you can manage to grit your teeth through the naked women, blood covered women, blunt force fights, inexhaustible fighting abilities, and seemingly amazing linguistic abilities of the hero.

[D. S. Dennison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, boyish summertime read full of danger, fighting, damsels in distress, and weird worlds just begging for exploration. If I were a 12 year old boy in my secret hideout in an empty lot with a sack lunch and free afternoon then this would be the perfect grace note.

Other reviewers have complained about the lack of characterization, breakneck pacing, and mistreatment of women and, while these are all perfectly valid literary complaints, I can't help but feel that they miss the point. Stepping back and looking at the novel as a whole I feel like we're being presented with a showcase of weird and highly imaginative worlds loosely stitched together with a narrative of sex and violence. There's an megalomaniacal overlord who travels to antiquity and enslaves a civilization in pursuit of conquest of all space and time, a tribe of Indians who pre-date the Maya worshipping a dinosaur that sleeps in the lake of volcanic crater, a future apocalypse of endless war between human zombies and sentient treemen who, in their turn, are consumed by giant, hallucinogenic insects on a dying world, and a ruined city populated by degenerate hybrid beastmen ruled by a leopard priestess queen while the enlightened classes sleep away eternity in suspended animation aboard floating airships. Then wrap it up with a vigorous serving of bare-knuckled fighting and a sprinkling of taboo naughtiness.

What else does a 12 year old need from a dime novel?

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked this better when I was 13 - when the early 20th century stylings of this horror/fantasy/technology-indistinguishable-from-magic novel were more common.

[Dian Beatty · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a story that had potential but goes off track pretty quickly. Kent Mason is a lost archeologist in the 1920s who stumbles across two strange towers in the desert. A lightning strike activates their strange powers and Mason is thrust back into time, where he discovers a strangely evolved "human" Gleddar Khan has taken over the ancient city of Al Bekr. Then it just all goes wonky. Every woman ends up stripped naked for one reason or another, and all of them throw themselves at Mason on first meeting. Why? Who knows? Mason and his new friends chase Khan and his silver priestess across time to prevent them taking over the future of a dying Earth. Though their adventures could be interesting, the intrigue is lost among copious and unnecessary use of exclamation points, confusing mistakes in narrative, and lack of details and explanation - unless it's about a female and her naked body. I'd skip it.

[Brian Borgford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The time travel theme attracted me to the book. However, time travel was just a tool to tell this very predictable adult fairy tale. That said, it was an interesting book with lots of action (maybe a bit too much) and was well told. I enjoyed reading the story and never once considered abandoning it. There was enough sci-fi to satisfy most readers of this genre. I was glad it wasn't just another in a long list of post- apocalyptic dystopian novels. Well defined good guys, damsel in distress, evil master and mistress, followed by a bit of a surprise twist at the end, with a very satisfying conclusion.

[James Alday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexism. Racism. Naivete about science. 1930s pulp adventure story or modern action flick? Take your pick. For all of its "faults", this story did not go in any of the directions I had assumed it would. The Mummy meets Stargate. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs meets Doctor Who. Don't expect this story to change your life - it's definitely got its cobwebs (molten radium!) but it was an enjoyable, fast paced read that throws a number of good ideas around. I think if I were reading this when it first came out, I'd be completely blown away by it - but now I'm a bit jaded by exactly the types of things that stories like this inspired.

[Mandy Walkden-Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, once I re-checked the date of the copyright of this book (1938), a great deal fell into place. It also prompted me to re-read it, just to see how prescient the author may have been. It also explains why the two main female characters are either scantily clad or naked for most of their appearances in the story.
A quick, action filled read with some pretty interesting ideas given its origin date of almost 90 years ago. If you can ignore the naked females it's a light but enjoyable read.
I'll read more by this author, but hopefully skip ones with clothing deprived women in them!

[Eero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulp fiction at it's pulpiest

This book, which was a Kindle freebie at the time I "bought" it, is a non-stop pulp action romp through time: the archeologist hero gets thrown into past and future times, with perils and nude women at every turn. The prose is extremely purple, and the depiction of different cultures is on the more insensitive side. A fun fast read, obviously written quickly to pay the rent.

[Erick Pruitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Written in 1938, it has the regular guy traveling to distant lands and times and saving the beautiful girl. That seems to be the trend in the early days of Sci-fi. This one was filled with adventure and left me looking for more written by this author.

[Lin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are virtually no grammar rules followed in this book. The use of choppy, incomplete sentences was distracting. Minus a star for that alone. I am not a big fan of sci-fi and this book did nothing to win me over. It wasn't bad, just not great.

[John Millsap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

Great old school sci fi. Quick read. Reminded me of Buck Rogers movies. Glad that I discovered this author. Plan to try others of works.