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Trips in Time: Nine Stories of Science Fiction
Nine Stories of Science Fiction by Poul Anderson, Fritiz Leiber, Peter Phillips, Christopher Priest, Marta Randall, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, A.E. Van Vogt, Roger Zelazny. It is editied by Robert Silverberg. "I want to offer here a group of time-travel stories of a different sort, more subtle variants on the basic notion, stories of people who float back and forth along the time stream in ways more intricate than those imagined by the old pioneers." Among editor Robert Silverberg's different sort of time-travel stories are some powerful tales- Robert Sheckley's The King's Wishes delineates the problems of a demon who can only make good by stealing modern appliances and carting them into the year 2000 B.C. Two monkish ghosts, ten thousand cans of American Miracle Meal, and some starving twelfth-century refuges are the ingenious ingredients of Peter Phillips' Manna. Try and Change the Past is exactly the time- traveler does in Fritz Leiber's story, forgetting to take into account the Law of Conservation of Reality. In MUgwump 4, All Miller is only trying to call the finance company, but the future is where Robert Silverberg's hero ends up- permanently. Marta Randall's Secret Rider is a woman who runs a race with time and space in pursuit of love. These, plus four other stories are a special treat for science fiction fans- who will reveal in these tales of adventure, humor, fantasy, and drama.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
53 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
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Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 2, 2020
This is one of a number of anthologies that Silverberg edited several years ago for a variety of publishers that included science fiction stories of travel in time. This is one of the shortest. It contains a good Marta Randall novelette (the newest in the book, from 1976), a fine Roger Zelazny story, and a nice Change War story by Fritz Leiber, among others. My favorite, The SeeSaw by A.E. van Vogt, is a Weapon Shop story which also happens to be the oldest, from 1941.
August 2, 2010
A slender but by and large well chosen anthology of time travel stories. In a few instances, including the editor's own story, it was hard to understand why items had been selected for inclusion, but I was more than compensated by the imaginativeness displayed in some of the other choices. Probably about half the stories I'd read before, but so long ago that, with the exception of the Christopher Priest piece, it was like coming to them for the first time. Here are the stories I particularly enjoyed:
Christopher Priest's "An Infinite Summer" (1976) movingly tells of a young man isolated from the woman he loves by the actions of tourists from the far future who, for reasons inscrutable, "freeze" tableaux of incidents that catch their fancy, the hapless participants being both frozen in time and rendered invisible to their contemporaries. At unpredictable moments, the tableaux – or parts thereof – "erode", releasing the participants into a state of being that doesn't properly belong to any time.
Part-ghost story, part-sf, Peter Phillips's "Manna" (1949) sees the spirits of two 12th-century monks, one of whom is a veritable Newton, haunting a modern food-processing plant and using arcane physical principles to transport cans of Miracle MealTM back to the needy of their own time.
The idea behind Poul Anderson's "The Long Remembering" (1957) is that the human mind is an attribute of the individual's worldline; since the worldline can be traced back beyond the individual's birth all the way through his ancestral lineage, it's possible to send someone's mentality temporarily into that of a forebear: "Your mind will be in the brain, or scanning the brain, of some ancestor [. . .:] But you will not be aware of [. . .:] any separate identity. On arousal – return – you will remember what went on, as if that other person had been you." A man who spends time in a prehistoric man's mind returns to find he's fallen in love with his Cro-Magnon wife, out of love with his real-time one.
"Try and Change the Past" (1958), one of Fritz Leiber's stories building upon the idea of the Change Wars, explores some ramifications of "the Law of the Conservation of Reality". The Doubleganger of a man who has been recruited into the Snakes shortly before being murdered by his wife travels back in time in an attempt to avert his own death. In his first attempts, the fatal 32-calibre bullet somehow manages to end up hitting him between the eyes, just as history dictates. When finally he succeeds in avoiding this, his other self looks out the window and is promptly hit between the eyes by a meteorite that just happens to leave a hole the size a 32-calibre bullet would. At that point the Doubleganger gives up and accepts his fate as a Spider recruit. "So how's a person going to outmaneuver a universe that finds it easier to drill a man through the head that way rather than postpone the date of his death?"
Like Philip K. Dick's Counter-Clock World and Martin Amis's Time's Arrow, Roger Zelazny's "Divine Madness" (1966) centres on a reversal of time's flow: a man journeys backward to undo the argument he and his wife had before she left in a fury to die in a fatal car crash. Reader and protagonist alike are left to wonder if this really happens or is an illusion born of the protagonist's post-bereavement mental breakdown. It's a nicely subtle tale, and perhaps – even though just a dozen pages long – the most effective of these three in its use of the time-reversal device.
August 18, 2015
Trips in Time is an old anthology of time travel themed sci-fi stories, all written in the mid-20th century. I read it a long while ago and could only remember one of the stories. Luckily, that story was so off the wall a few key terms in Google and I was able to find the book again. (‘Manna’ was the story, BTW)
Divine Madness by Roger Zelazny
Grief (and brain chemistry) prove to, for once, be stronger than time. Hurray for happy endings! (or beginnings, in this case)
Manna by Peter Phillips
The science of ghosts explored in a English-village comedy-drama meets big-corp-politics drama-comedy.
Mugwump 4 by Robert Silverberg
It was a hilarious parody of the Cold War – up until the end m which is a major downer ending that really twists the knife as it makes the point that This Cold War Is Stupid.
The King's Wishes by Robert Sheckley
A sci-fi take on the Arabian Nights, set in the “now” (it was written in the 1950’s) with a genie and a clever wife who wins the day with mechanics rather than the husband’s hapless attempts at mysticism.
The Long Remembering by Poul Anderson
A look at how time travel can leave one helplessly nostalgic for the past. Not too much sympathy for the main character since he gets to go back to the age of plumbing and antibiotics, but you always do remember that first love with rose colored glasses, right?
Try and Change the Past Change War by Fritz Leiber
The influences of WWII and the Cold War are easy to spot from a distance in this story about the futility of trying to change Time, presented here as the comedy-drama of one pawn in a galactic-sized war.
May 18, 2021
It was OK. Turns out that most of the stories that were good I had read before sometime.
An Infinite Summer (1976) Christopher Priest
Time travel - if you travel at one second per second
Divine Madness (1966) Roger Zelazny
Time is running backward
Manna (1949) Peter Phillips
Really a ghost story
Mugwump 4 (1959) Robert Silverberg
They're out to get us - some day
Secret Rider (1976) Marta Randall
I didn't get it, hard to read, harder to figure out what was going on
The King's Wishes (1953) Robert Sheckley
Fantasy - demons and Atlantis
The Long Remembering (1957) Poul Anderson
Travel to the distant past
The Seesaw [Weapon Shops of Isher] (1941) A. E. van Vogt
Read this one before - start of the Weapon Shops
Try and Change the Past [Change War] (1958) Fritz Leiber
Shows how hard it is to change your past
An Infinite Summer (1976) Christopher Priest
Time travel - if you travel at one second per second
Divine Madness (1966) Roger Zelazny
Time is running backward
Manna (1949) Peter Phillips
Really a ghost story
Mugwump 4 (1959) Robert Silverberg
They're out to get us - some day
Secret Rider (1976) Marta Randall
I didn't get it, hard to read, harder to figure out what was going on
The King's Wishes (1953) Robert Sheckley
Fantasy - demons and Atlantis
The Long Remembering (1957) Poul Anderson
Travel to the distant past
The Seesaw [Weapon Shops of Isher] (1941) A. E. van Vogt
Read this one before - start of the Weapon Shops
Try and Change the Past [Change War] (1958) Fritz Leiber
Shows how hard it is to change your past
December 9, 2021
TRIPS IN TIME
RATED 89% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4.00 OUT OF 5
9 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
I do enjoy a short anthology, especially when that book is entirely focussed about one subgenera within Science Fiction. Trips in Time, edited by Robert Silverberg is one such anthology. The entire book is only 150 pages, which has shorter than some novellas in a Gardner Dozois anthology..
The theme is Time Travel, but Silverberg has chosen stories that are unconventional in the method of their operation. No time machines here!
He has also picked stories that were very enjoyable to read. Mugwump 4 , Manna, and The King’s Wishes all could be reasonably classified as comedy. There are few more serious stories, but never did we get bogged down in the bleak.
There are two truly great stories in the anthology.
An Infinite Summer • (1976) • novelette by Christopher Priest. Bouncing gently between a quaint romantic interlude of 1903 and 1940s London during the Blitz, this explores the mysterious freezers and their affect on the lives of the people around them. This is story that plays on mood, setting, and mystery very well.
Secret Rider • (1976) • novelette by Marta Randall. Tight and sharp story with great world building and propulsive energy. A woman travels across space and time, in increasingly complex ways, to give her ex-lover something embedded in her thigh. This would be a great movie.
***
TRIPS IN TIME IS RATED 89% POSITIVE
9 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
An Infinite Summer • (1976) • novelette by Christopher Priest
Great. Bouncing gently between a quaint romantic interlude of 1903 and 1940s London during the Blitz, this explores the mysterious freezers and their affect on the lives of the people around them.
The King's Wishes • (1953) • short story by Robert Sheckley
Average. Shopkeepers interact with a demon who is stealing their household devices for an ancient King. Pleasant enough.
Manna • (1949) • novelette by Peter Phillips
Good. Combining a superfood product, ghosts of ancient monks, refugees, and time travel, this is pleasant bit of SF fun.
The Long Remembering • (1957) • short story by Poul Anderson
Good. The mind of a volunteer is sent into his past to a random time and has to rescue his love from neanderthals.
Try and Change the Past • (1958) • short story by Fritz Leiber
Good. A man is pulled out of time to be a solider in the Time War, but carelessness allows him to go back in time to save his life.
Divine Madness • (1966) • short story by Roger Zelazny
Good. Seizures are apparently making a man age backwards, possibly towards a crucial moment in his life.
Mugwump 4 • (1959) • novelette by Robert Silverberg (variant of Mugwump Four)
Good. SF Comedy as a mistyped phone number thrusts a normal man into a world of mutants, war, banishment to the far future, and bureaucratic nonsense.
Secret Rider • (1976) • novelette by Marta Randall
Great. Tight and sharp story but great world building and propulsive energy. A woman travels across space and time, in increasingly complex ways, to give her ex-lover something embedded in her thigh.
The Seesaw • (1941) • short story by A. E. van Vogt.
Average. A man walks into a far future weapons shop - transplanted to the present - and find himself at the center of a ongoing conflict. Vogt is playing with ideas that he will do better in future stories.
RATED 89% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4.00 OUT OF 5
9 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
I do enjoy a short anthology, especially when that book is entirely focussed about one subgenera within Science Fiction. Trips in Time, edited by Robert Silverberg is one such anthology. The entire book is only 150 pages, which has shorter than some novellas in a Gardner Dozois anthology..
The theme is Time Travel, but Silverberg has chosen stories that are unconventional in the method of their operation. No time machines here!
He has also picked stories that were very enjoyable to read. Mugwump 4 , Manna, and The King’s Wishes all could be reasonably classified as comedy. There are few more serious stories, but never did we get bogged down in the bleak.
There are two truly great stories in the anthology.
An Infinite Summer • (1976) • novelette by Christopher Priest. Bouncing gently between a quaint romantic interlude of 1903 and 1940s London during the Blitz, this explores the mysterious freezers and their affect on the lives of the people around them. This is story that plays on mood, setting, and mystery very well.
Secret Rider • (1976) • novelette by Marta Randall. Tight and sharp story with great world building and propulsive energy. A woman travels across space and time, in increasingly complex ways, to give her ex-lover something embedded in her thigh. This would be a great movie.
***
TRIPS IN TIME IS RATED 89% POSITIVE
9 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
An Infinite Summer • (1976) • novelette by Christopher Priest
Great. Bouncing gently between a quaint romantic interlude of 1903 and 1940s London during the Blitz, this explores the mysterious freezers and their affect on the lives of the people around them.
The King's Wishes • (1953) • short story by Robert Sheckley
Average. Shopkeepers interact with a demon who is stealing their household devices for an ancient King. Pleasant enough.
Manna • (1949) • novelette by Peter Phillips
Good. Combining a superfood product, ghosts of ancient monks, refugees, and time travel, this is pleasant bit of SF fun.
The Long Remembering • (1957) • short story by Poul Anderson
Good. The mind of a volunteer is sent into his past to a random time and has to rescue his love from neanderthals.
Try and Change the Past • (1958) • short story by Fritz Leiber
Good. A man is pulled out of time to be a solider in the Time War, but carelessness allows him to go back in time to save his life.
Divine Madness • (1966) • short story by Roger Zelazny
Good. Seizures are apparently making a man age backwards, possibly towards a crucial moment in his life.
Mugwump 4 • (1959) • novelette by Robert Silverberg (variant of Mugwump Four)
Good. SF Comedy as a mistyped phone number thrusts a normal man into a world of mutants, war, banishment to the far future, and bureaucratic nonsense.
Secret Rider • (1976) • novelette by Marta Randall
Great. Tight and sharp story but great world building and propulsive energy. A woman travels across space and time, in increasingly complex ways, to give her ex-lover something embedded in her thigh.
The Seesaw • (1941) • short story by A. E. van Vogt.
Average. A man walks into a far future weapons shop - transplanted to the present - and find himself at the center of a ongoing conflict. Vogt is playing with ideas that he will do better in future stories.
September 18, 2023
This gets three stars because the writing is good and original, but I didn't particularly like some of the stories. All of them involve time travel.
o The King's Wishes by Robert Sheckley: Involves a demon traveling to the future to get goodies for his king. Funny but dumb. Good ending, even though I didn't quite understand the motivations of the married couple.
o Manna by Peter Phillips: Also funny. I'm not sure what the point was, though. The religious ghosts sort of reminded me of A Canticle for Leibowitz... but just barely.
o Try and Change the Past by Fritz Leiber: Using a character I didn't like to change a past I didn't care about.
o MUgwump 4 by Robert Silverberg: A guy dials a wrong number and uncovers a spy ring. Rather than kill him they send him into the future. Cute but I am barely old enough to remember using letters in phone numbers.
o Secret Rider by Marta Randall: This is a really confusing love story through time that I think would only make sense to women. I would have punched the bastard in the nose. It is somewhat akin to The Time Traveler's Wife but they are both time travelers.
o An Infinite Summer by Christopher Priest: The love story was sweet, but the rest of it was infinitely weird. It might have made more sense as a book. I kept thinking of Blackout or The Time Machine.
o The Long Remembering by Poul Anderson: What seems like a college psychology experiment turns into an adventure into prehistoric times. Pretty good, actually.
o Divine Madness by Roger Zelany: Another good one using a reverse timeline structure. We start at the end of the story and time travel step-by-step to the beginning. Surprise. Good ending... uh... beginning.
o The Seesaw by A.E. Van Vogt: I loved this story. It was expanded into two books: The Weapon Shops of Isher and The Weapon Makers. I own the omnibus version "The Empire of Isher: The Weapon Makers / The Weapon Shops of Isher". I feel like going back and reading it now.
OK. So... loved some. Didn't really enjoy others. Averaged out to 3 stars.
o The King's Wishes by Robert Sheckley: Involves a demon traveling to the future to get goodies for his king. Funny but dumb. Good ending, even though I didn't quite understand the motivations of the married couple.
o Manna by Peter Phillips: Also funny. I'm not sure what the point was, though. The religious ghosts sort of reminded me of A Canticle for Leibowitz... but just barely.
o Try and Change the Past by Fritz Leiber: Using a character I didn't like to change a past I didn't care about.
o MUgwump 4 by Robert Silverberg: A guy dials a wrong number and uncovers a spy ring. Rather than kill him they send him into the future. Cute but I am barely old enough to remember using letters in phone numbers.
o Secret Rider by Marta Randall: This is a really confusing love story through time that I think would only make sense to women. I would have punched the bastard in the nose. It is somewhat akin to The Time Traveler's Wife but they are both time travelers.
o An Infinite Summer by Christopher Priest: The love story was sweet, but the rest of it was infinitely weird. It might have made more sense as a book. I kept thinking of Blackout or The Time Machine.
o The Long Remembering by Poul Anderson: What seems like a college psychology experiment turns into an adventure into prehistoric times. Pretty good, actually.
o Divine Madness by Roger Zelany: Another good one using a reverse timeline structure. We start at the end of the story and time travel step-by-step to the beginning. Surprise. Good ending... uh... beginning.
o The Seesaw by A.E. Van Vogt: I loved this story. It was expanded into two books: The Weapon Shops of Isher and The Weapon Makers. I own the omnibus version "The Empire of Isher: The Weapon Makers / The Weapon Shops of Isher". I feel like going back and reading it now.
OK. So... loved some. Didn't really enjoy others. Averaged out to 3 stars.
February 10, 2024
Nine stories involving time travel. None bad, a few pretty good.
Christopher Priest “An Infinite Summer” 1976 ****
Robert Sheckley “The King’s Wishes” 1953 ****
Peter Phillips “Manna” 1949 ***
Poul Anderson “The Long Remembering” 1957 ****
Fritz Leiber “Try and Change the Past” 1958 ****
Robert Zelazny “Divine Madness” 1966 ***
Robert Silverberg “Mugwump 4” 1959 ***
Marta Randall “Secret Rider” 1976 ***
A. E. van Vogt “The Seesaw” 1941 ***
Christopher Priest “An Infinite Summer” 1976 ****
Robert Sheckley “The King’s Wishes” 1953 ****
Peter Phillips “Manna” 1949 ***
Poul Anderson “The Long Remembering” 1957 ****
Fritz Leiber “Try and Change the Past” 1958 ****
Robert Zelazny “Divine Madness” 1966 ***
Robert Silverberg “Mugwump 4” 1959 ***
Marta Randall “Secret Rider” 1976 ***
A. E. van Vogt “The Seesaw” 1941 ***
June 15, 2018
Mostly pulp. Did enjoy "An Infinite Summer," by Christopher Priest and "Secret Rider," by Marta Randall.
Shows how Science Fiction doesn't age well - any story about the future reads false when read in the future. This collection is from 1977.
Shows how Science Fiction doesn't age well - any story about the future reads false when read in the future. This collection is from 1977.
May 25, 2021
Nine short stories which involve time travel, ranging in quality from good to passable. Diversity seemed to be part of Silverberg's intent in choosing these. There are stories which could qualify as historical fiction, romance, humor, adventure, and mood picture.
March 2, 2024
Not too bad, good quality stories in general.
November 6, 2011
This is a review-in-progress and will be updated as I read the various stories. I am going to start at the very beginning with the first story.
I am not a big fan of time machines and time travelling, but I still look forward to seeing where this anthology will take me. The editor promises the reader that these stories will be very different from your average time machine stories.
An Infinite Summer (22 pages, by Christopher Priest) is, as the editor promised, a very different time travelling story. It introduces a group of people called freezers. These have the power to freeze people in time, making tableaus. Why? Well, that is not explained (and not needed, if you ask me). This story is also a very beautiful love story written by a true master. High recommended! (4 stars)
The King's Wishes (11 pages, by Robert Sheckley) is a fun little read. Bob and Janice owns a store and recently items have been stolen during the night. The thief seem particular skilled and yet, the two set out to catch him. This is a piece of candy with a little twist in the end. It tastes good, but there is no nutrition in it. (2.5 stars)
Manna (28 pages, by Peter Phillips) is, hopefully, the only story in this anthology that I couldn't finish. It is a mess and no explanation is given. It is about something called Miracle Meals (MM) and I think there are a couple of ghosts stealing MM cans from a MM factory, but I couldn't tell you much more about it, since I had to stop halfway through the story. I may need to read this again at some point. (1 star)
The Long Remembering (13 pages, by Poul Anderson) is a slightly different time travel story. It involves a technology that allows people to be send back in history where their soul inhabits the body of one of their ancestors. They are not able to change anything, but remembers everything when they "awake" in the real world. I wouldn't really call it sci-fi, but I did like it. The ending, though, was a little confusing and I m not sure that I truly understand it. (2.5 stars)
Try and Change the Past (8 pages, by Fritz Leiber) is a tricky story, much too tricky for me, but I still liked it! It introduces something called the Change War, which is a war in which two factions change the general past. This story is about changing the personal past which is harder, or near impossible. Fascinating. Also, this story is connected to Leiber's The Big Time, which delves deeper into the Change War. (3.5 stars)
Divine Madness (8 pages, by Roger Zelazny) took me completely by surprise. This story is about a man who is sick. Whenever he gets a seizure, he turns back time and experience everything that has gone before, in the reversed sequence, of course. It is beautifully written and has a really cool surprise in the end, a surprise that you will see coming, but still... pretty awesome! The best story so far. Highly recommended! (4 stars)
Mugwump 4 (20 pages, by Robert Silverberg) is a story that reminded me of the first Theodore Sturgeon story that I ever read. This story is about a man named Al Miller, who makes the wrong phonecall and is hurdled into the future, quite unwillingly. It was a bit too long and a bit too farfetched. An ok read, but not as cool as the story that it reminded me of in the beginning. (2 stars)
Secret Rider (26 pages, by Marta Randall) is a highly confusing story about a woman looking for a man. Apparently, she is carrying something for him, something that he needs. In this setting, people can travel in time the same way we would travel into space. The language is very much like a poem, at times, which can be quite confusing when you are trying to follow the story. It had its moments, but was far too long. (2 stars)
The Seesaw (14 pages, by A. E. Van Vogt) is a prolog to a book called The Weapons Makers. I haven't read that book, so this was a whole new setting to me. I am not sure that I got it, though. (1.5 stars)
I am not a big fan of time machines and time travelling, but I still look forward to seeing where this anthology will take me. The editor promises the reader that these stories will be very different from your average time machine stories.
An Infinite Summer (22 pages, by Christopher Priest) is, as the editor promised, a very different time travelling story. It introduces a group of people called freezers. These have the power to freeze people in time, making tableaus. Why? Well, that is not explained (and not needed, if you ask me). This story is also a very beautiful love story written by a true master. High recommended! (4 stars)
The King's Wishes (11 pages, by Robert Sheckley) is a fun little read. Bob and Janice owns a store and recently items have been stolen during the night. The thief seem particular skilled and yet, the two set out to catch him. This is a piece of candy with a little twist in the end. It tastes good, but there is no nutrition in it. (2.5 stars)
Manna (28 pages, by Peter Phillips) is, hopefully, the only story in this anthology that I couldn't finish. It is a mess and no explanation is given. It is about something called Miracle Meals (MM) and I think there are a couple of ghosts stealing MM cans from a MM factory, but I couldn't tell you much more about it, since I had to stop halfway through the story. I may need to read this again at some point. (1 star)
The Long Remembering (13 pages, by Poul Anderson) is a slightly different time travel story. It involves a technology that allows people to be send back in history where their soul inhabits the body of one of their ancestors. They are not able to change anything, but remembers everything when they "awake" in the real world. I wouldn't really call it sci-fi, but I did like it. The ending, though, was a little confusing and I m not sure that I truly understand it. (2.5 stars)
Try and Change the Past (8 pages, by Fritz Leiber) is a tricky story, much too tricky for me, but I still liked it! It introduces something called the Change War, which is a war in which two factions change the general past. This story is about changing the personal past which is harder, or near impossible. Fascinating. Also, this story is connected to Leiber's The Big Time, which delves deeper into the Change War. (3.5 stars)
Divine Madness (8 pages, by Roger Zelazny) took me completely by surprise. This story is about a man who is sick. Whenever he gets a seizure, he turns back time and experience everything that has gone before, in the reversed sequence, of course. It is beautifully written and has a really cool surprise in the end, a surprise that you will see coming, but still... pretty awesome! The best story so far. Highly recommended! (4 stars)
Mugwump 4 (20 pages, by Robert Silverberg) is a story that reminded me of the first Theodore Sturgeon story that I ever read. This story is about a man named Al Miller, who makes the wrong phonecall and is hurdled into the future, quite unwillingly. It was a bit too long and a bit too farfetched. An ok read, but not as cool as the story that it reminded me of in the beginning. (2 stars)
Secret Rider (26 pages, by Marta Randall) is a highly confusing story about a woman looking for a man. Apparently, she is carrying something for him, something that he needs. In this setting, people can travel in time the same way we would travel into space. The language is very much like a poem, at times, which can be quite confusing when you are trying to follow the story. It had its moments, but was far too long. (2 stars)
The Seesaw (14 pages, by A. E. Van Vogt) is a prolog to a book called The Weapons Makers. I haven't read that book, so this was a whole new setting to me. I am not sure that I got it, though. (1.5 stars)
May 9, 2023
A nice mix of poignant, creepy, and funny. My favorite stories touched on the concepts of an ancestral well and Groundhog Day. While all stories feel very ‘of the era’ they were written, they also speak to universal themes, as good science fiction should!
March 2, 2013
This book contains 9 time travel short stories written by some leading science fiction authors including Poul Anderson and A.E. van Vogt. Each story is very different from the others. Some of the stories have a science fiction feel to them while others are more like fantasy. These time traveling adventures are thought provoking and very imaginative. It is this imaginative part found in these stories that I like best, for I would never have thought of many of the ideas behind these stories!
September 22, 2009
A fair collection of science fiction stories by established authors edited by Robert Silverberg.
January 29, 2014
Reading these old sci fi stories is like coming home after years away.
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