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Timeliner Trilogy #1
At The Narrow Passage
FROM FAR IN THE FUTURE COMES A HIDEOUS WARNING OF DESTRUCTION.
But the message is not clear, and the result is a mad scramble to change the present—all possible presents—in order to avoid the future. For the recipients of the message are not humans but Kriths, lizardlike beings from a parallel Timeline.
Using machines that move sideways in time, a band of dedicated mercenaries and Krith leaders cut a wide swath through countless Timelines. It is a brutal and bloody struggle that has no end—until one of their strongest fighters begins to ask questions the Kriths would rather not answer.
But the message is not clear, and the result is a mad scramble to change the present—all possible presents—in order to avoid the future. For the recipients of the message are not humans but Kriths, lizardlike beings from a parallel Timeline.
Using machines that move sideways in time, a band of dedicated mercenaries and Krith leaders cut a wide swath through countless Timelines. It is a brutal and bloody struggle that has no end—until one of their strongest fighters begins to ask questions the Kriths would rather not answer.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
1 person is currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Richard C. Meredith
16 books8 followersRichard Carlton Meredith was an American writer, illustrator and graphic designer, best known as the author of science fiction short stories and novels including "We All Died at Breakaway Station" and The Timeliner Trilogy.
Meredith's works give unfamiliar twists to many familiar SF themes: A human Galactic empire and its struggle with a non-human rival (We All Died at Breakaway Station) or with independence-seeking human subjects (The Sky Is Filled with Ships); a theocratic dictatorship, nuclear and biological warfare, and the effort to change history by time travel (Run, Come See Jerusalem!); or the "sidewise" travel into alternate histories and the struggle for control over a multitude of divergent timelines (The Timeliner Trilogy).
Meredith's protagonists tend to be highly motivated and devoted people, wholeheartedly taking up Earth- or Universe-shaking causes to which they give their all - and often discovering that they had been duped into serving an evil cause, or that an action taken with the best of intentions actually makes a bad situation worse. A reader opening a Meredith book can by no means count on a happy ending - indeed, some of the books can be classed as dystopias.
In the preface to Breakaway Station, before the reader had yet met the protagonists, Meredith already tells that all of them would eventually die heroic deaths comparable to those of Leonidas and his three hundred at the Battle of Thermopylae — and indeed, the book duly comes to precisely that ending.
Meredith died unexpectedly on 8 March 1979, aged only 41, following a stroke brought on by a brain hemorrhage.He was survived by his wife and four children.
Meredith's works give unfamiliar twists to many familiar SF themes: A human Galactic empire and its struggle with a non-human rival (We All Died at Breakaway Station) or with independence-seeking human subjects (The Sky Is Filled with Ships); a theocratic dictatorship, nuclear and biological warfare, and the effort to change history by time travel (Run, Come See Jerusalem!); or the "sidewise" travel into alternate histories and the struggle for control over a multitude of divergent timelines (The Timeliner Trilogy).
Meredith's protagonists tend to be highly motivated and devoted people, wholeheartedly taking up Earth- or Universe-shaking causes to which they give their all - and often discovering that they had been duped into serving an evil cause, or that an action taken with the best of intentions actually makes a bad situation worse. A reader opening a Meredith book can by no means count on a happy ending - indeed, some of the books can be classed as dystopias.
In the preface to Breakaway Station, before the reader had yet met the protagonists, Meredith already tells that all of them would eventually die heroic deaths comparable to those of Leonidas and his three hundred at the Battle of Thermopylae — and indeed, the book duly comes to precisely that ending.
Meredith died unexpectedly on 8 March 1979, aged only 41, following a stroke brought on by a brain hemorrhage.He was survived by his wife and four children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 25, 2015
Some interesting worldbuilding. The whole book does feel like a big set-up for what's "really going on"; the plot is primarily "hero runs around shooting at people while trying to figure out who he should be shooting at". Oh, and of course every single woman he encounters is incredibly beautiful (described in the male author's way which once even includes exact inch-measurements, ugh), and of course he sleeps with every single gorgeous woman he encounters (except for one woman he encounters in the heat of battle and just leaves behind tied up nude, although he does think about it, but there's no time).
If you cut out the Adventures of the Traveling Penis, I suspect I'd have bumped up the rating a star. I am intrigued enough by the worldbuilding to read the next book and see what all this buildup has been leading to. Hopefully less penis shenanigans.
If you cut out the Adventures of the Traveling Penis, I suspect I'd have bumped up the rating a star. I am intrigued enough by the worldbuilding to read the next book and see what all this buildup has been leading to. Hopefully less penis shenanigans.
August 3, 2009
First in what is one of my favorite SF series of all time. Extremely good.
April 22, 2015
Interesting multiple unverse swashbuckling story. 1st of a trilogy.
May 19, 2020
This is the first book of the "Timeliner Trilogy" by Richard C. Meredith. Richard C. Meredith was an American writer, illustrator and graphic designer, best known as the author of science fiction short stories and novels including We All Died at Breakaway Station and The "Timeliner Trilogy". Tragically he died unexpectedly on March 8, 1979, aged only 41, following a stroke brought on by a brain hemorrhage.
In this book a message of an impending alien invasion that will wipe out all life on the many different earth's, both inhabited by the Krith and by humankind, is received from 2000 years in the future. The Krith form a special paramilitary team of humans that has the ability to cross parallel realities, preparing all possible futures for the attack. But when a timeliner named Eric Mathers is told that the pan-dimensional beings called the Krith may have a hidden agenda, he must attempt to discover if the war he has been fighting for the last fourteen years is really for the greater good or just part of the "greatest lie".
I actually read this trilogy in the seventies when it was first published and remembered how much I enjoyed it. I got all three books recently at a used book store and decided to revisit it as a pleasant reminder of the past. This is a great series and I recommend it highly.
In this book a message of an impending alien invasion that will wipe out all life on the many different earth's, both inhabited by the Krith and by humankind, is received from 2000 years in the future. The Krith form a special paramilitary team of humans that has the ability to cross parallel realities, preparing all possible futures for the attack. But when a timeliner named Eric Mathers is told that the pan-dimensional beings called the Krith may have a hidden agenda, he must attempt to discover if the war he has been fighting for the last fourteen years is really for the greater good or just part of the "greatest lie".
I actually read this trilogy in the seventies when it was first published and remembered how much I enjoyed it. I got all three books recently at a used book store and decided to revisit it as a pleasant reminder of the past. This is a great series and I recommend it highly.
September 10, 2011
Picked this up while in Norway. Made no impression. Didn't bother with the rest of the series.
December 20, 2013
An Interesting take on Time Travel.
January 29, 2016
If you like time travel this is a good trilogy. Recommended
April 14, 2017
42 WORD REVIEW:
Forty years before Pratchett and Baxter’s ‘The Long Earth’, the multiverse played host to Richard C. Meredith’s Timeliners Trilogy – pulpy, engaging, alternative SF military history with aliens and gratuitously accommodating females thrown in (this objectification undermining what had been a promising start).
Forty years before Pratchett and Baxter’s ‘The Long Earth’, the multiverse played host to Richard C. Meredith’s Timeliners Trilogy – pulpy, engaging, alternative SF military history with aliens and gratuitously accommodating females thrown in (this objectification undermining what had been a promising start).
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews