Little Differences

by Paul Levinson

Jeff Harris, stranded in the 1960s with Laura, 20 years before he was supposed to arrive, plots to prevent the space shuttle Challenger from exploding in 1986.

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Paul Levinson, PhD, is an author, professor, singer-songwriter, media commentator, podcaster, and publisher. His first novel, The Silk Code, won the Locus Award for best first science fiction novel of 1999. Entertainment Weekly called his 2006 novel, The Plot to Save Socrates, “challenging fun”. Unburning Alexandria, sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates, was published in 2013. Chronica - the third novel in the Sierra Waters time travel trilogy - followed in 2014. His 1995 award-nominated novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case," was made into a short film, now on Amazon Prime Video. His 2022 alternate history short story about The Beatles, "It's Real Life," was made into a radioplay, streaming free, and an audiobook, in 2023, and it won the Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fiction. "It's Real Life" was expanded into a novel, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles, and published in 2024. Paul Levinson was President of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), 1998-2001. His nine nonfiction books on the history and future of media have been translated into 15 languages around the world, and have been reviewed in The New York Times, Wired, and major newspapers and magazines. Two shorter books, McLuhan in an Age of Social Media and Fake News in Real Context, were published in 2015-2016, and are frequently updated. Levinson appears on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and numerous other television and radio shows and podcasts. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was reissued on CD and remastered vinyl and is available on Bandcamp and iTunes. His first new album since Twice Upon A Rhyme -- Welcome Up: Songs of Space Time -- was released by Old Bear Records on CD and digital, and Light in the Attic Records on vinyl, in 2020. Levinson is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in NYC.

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Reviews

[Jim Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Little Differences” is Paul Levinson’s follow-up novella to “Loose Ends” which follows the time traveling of Jeff Harris as he’s sucked back into the 60’s away from his mission to stop the Challenger explosion and how time affects him in trying to complete the mission.

Levinson is a risk taker. In a brilliant piece of plotting he tells you the end, how the story will resolve itself, the Challenger explodes only killing the astronauts instead of the history Jeff knows, the Challenger explodes and crashes into a school full of children. We, of course, know the history of the Challenger explosion so there is the double effect of pulling us into the story and creating a tension within us. Will Jeff alter his future to become the history we know? It automatically invests the reader, they become part of the story.

In keeping with “Loose Ends” having rock ‘n’ roll as a central part of the story, Levinson carries a bit of that over into “Little Differences” and interjects a bit of humor into the story with the revelation that in the world of “Little Differences” Eddie and the Cruisers was a real band, little differences indeed.

“Little Differences” (and its predecessor “Loose Ends”) is what a time travel story should be, good escapist fun with a few paradoxes thrown to keep you guessing and maybe thinking ‘what if’.