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Great Work of Time
Casper Last, an impoverished genius, uses his time machine in an attempt to preserve the reign of the British Empire for the Otherhood
144 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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572 people want to read
About the author
John Crowley
129 books832 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
John Crowley was born in Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942; his father was then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 15th volume of fiction (Endless Things) in 2007. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
His first published novels were science fiction: The Deep (1975) and Beasts (1976). Engine Summer (1979) was nominated for the 1980 American Book Award; it appears in David Pringle’s 100 Best Science Fiction Novels.
In 1981 came Little, Big, which Ursula Le Guin described as a book that “all by itself calls for a redefinition of fantasy.”
In 1980 Crowley embarked on an ambitious four-volume novel, Ægypt, comprising The Solitudes (originally published as Ægypt), Love & Sleep, Dæmonomania, and Endless Things, published in May 2007. This series and Little, Big were cited when Crowley received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature.
He is also the recipient of an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant. His recent novels are The Translator, recipient of the Premio Flaianno (Italy), and Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land, which contains an entire imaginary novel by the poet. A novella, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, appeared in 2002. A museum-quality 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big, featuring the art of Peter Milton and a critical introduction by Harold Bloom, is in preparation.
Note: The John Crowley who wrote Sans épines, la rose: Tony Blair, un modèle pour l'Europe? is a different author with the same name. (website)
John Crowley was born in Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942; his father was then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 15th volume of fiction (Endless Things) in 2007. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
His first published novels were science fiction: The Deep (1975) and Beasts (1976). Engine Summer (1979) was nominated for the 1980 American Book Award; it appears in David Pringle’s 100 Best Science Fiction Novels.
In 1981 came Little, Big, which Ursula Le Guin described as a book that “all by itself calls for a redefinition of fantasy.”
In 1980 Crowley embarked on an ambitious four-volume novel, Ægypt, comprising The Solitudes (originally published as Ægypt), Love & Sleep, Dæmonomania, and Endless Things, published in May 2007. This series and Little, Big were cited when Crowley received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature.
He is also the recipient of an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant. His recent novels are The Translator, recipient of the Premio Flaianno (Italy), and Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land, which contains an entire imaginary novel by the poet. A novella, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, appeared in 2002. A museum-quality 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big, featuring the art of Peter Milton and a critical introduction by Harold Bloom, is in preparation.
Note: The John Crowley who wrote Sans épines, la rose: Tony Blair, un modèle pour l'Europe? is a different author with the same name. (website)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
June 14, 2011
I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
"Great Work of Time" is a story about people who travel through time. The plot centers on the British Empire and its influence throughout its colonies, most specifically its African holdings. Naturally, the actions of these time travelers have consequences that spread throughout the continuum of time and space, altering everything they touch.
This general theory of effect is nothing new to the genre of time-travel, yet in his explication of this phenomenon, and in his execution of the story set forth in "Great Work of Time," Crowley has accomplished something novel and frightening: novel, because the theory that he posits for time travel gives birth to a puzzle-box of plots, each one linked to the other in a myriad ways that a lesser writer would find impossible to describe with mere prose; frightening, because Crowley directs his characters to employ this multifaceted instrument in the continuation and perfection of no less a behemoth than the British Empire.
Once the Big Idea of this novella makes its appearance, its connotations loom like a massive, starlit guillotine, its razored face poised above the great works proposed by Crowley's characters, its fatal fall held back by a few tenuous questions. Yes, these time benders seek to do good and only good for all of humanity--but who are they to say what is good? Yes, they seek to erase the lines of power that tie men and nations together--but are they not themselves the source of a greater power, one that holds dominion over every possible reality?
These questions frightened me as soon as they appeared, and I wondered if Crowley would approach them in this novella of such modest size. And when he not only touched upon these questions, but traced them all the way to their conclusions, I was left stunned by what I read, and what the words made me see.
I am left feeling unsettled. Fiction though this may be, it is itself another world, another reality, and what it has shown me has perturbed my own world and my own reality. Somehow, Crowley steps outside of conventional thinking, turns the reader around, points, and says, "Look at it this way." Having done so, I will not forget what I have seen.
* * * * * *
On a more conventional note: as of this writing, "Great Work of Time" is (most unjustly) out of print. Do not let this prevent you from seeking a copy and digesting it for your own well-being.
"Great Work of Time" is a story about people who travel through time. The plot centers on the British Empire and its influence throughout its colonies, most specifically its African holdings. Naturally, the actions of these time travelers have consequences that spread throughout the continuum of time and space, altering everything they touch.
This general theory of effect is nothing new to the genre of time-travel, yet in his explication of this phenomenon, and in his execution of the story set forth in "Great Work of Time," Crowley has accomplished something novel and frightening: novel, because the theory that he posits for time travel gives birth to a puzzle-box of plots, each one linked to the other in a myriad ways that a lesser writer would find impossible to describe with mere prose; frightening, because Crowley directs his characters to employ this multifaceted instrument in the continuation and perfection of no less a behemoth than the British Empire.
Once the Big Idea of this novella makes its appearance, its connotations loom like a massive, starlit guillotine, its razored face poised above the great works proposed by Crowley's characters, its fatal fall held back by a few tenuous questions. Yes, these time benders seek to do good and only good for all of humanity--but who are they to say what is good? Yes, they seek to erase the lines of power that tie men and nations together--but are they not themselves the source of a greater power, one that holds dominion over every possible reality?
These questions frightened me as soon as they appeared, and I wondered if Crowley would approach them in this novella of such modest size. And when he not only touched upon these questions, but traced them all the way to their conclusions, I was left stunned by what I read, and what the words made me see.
I am left feeling unsettled. Fiction though this may be, it is itself another world, another reality, and what it has shown me has perturbed my own world and my own reality. Somehow, Crowley steps outside of conventional thinking, turns the reader around, points, and says, "Look at it this way." Having done so, I will not forget what I have seen.
* * * * * *
On a more conventional note: as of this writing, "Great Work of Time" is (most unjustly) out of print. Do not let this prevent you from seeking a copy and digesting it for your own well-being.
April 9, 2020
If you've read my reviews you know I dislike time travel stories immensely. The only exception to my rather inflexible mindset has been Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates. But lo! Then there were two. John Crowley's Great Work of Time is the first book by Crowley I've ever finished. (I have tried reading Little, Big twice it just didn't do it for me.) Great Work of Time paradoxically makes sense (to the extent anything can) of time travel. It is well written and thought provoking. Now I must reevaluate Crowley and read something else by him.
March 16, 2021
I recall reading this novella over ten years ago, and thinking it was the most remarkable time-travel story that I had ever read.
On re-reading, I discovered there was much that I had forgotten. Also, it's a rather complex story, so I have to admit that I'm not sure that I completely understood it. I would probably have to re-read the story again before I'd feel entirely comfortable.
At any rate, the main idea seems to be that, once time travel is possible, an association will arise which attempts to "doctor" history in order to improve the outcome or smooth over human suffering. A question necessarily arises concerning whether or not such a doctoring attempt can ever succeed without resulting in unintended and undesirable consequences.
It's all very cleverly set up, using Cecil Rhodes (the diamond magnate after whom the "Rhodes Scholarship" is named) as a historical linchpin.
Crowley's writing is lush and engaging. His ability to mix the historical and the fantastical is probably on par with the ability of Borges. [Note: I read this story in the collection: Novelties & Souvenirs. Approx. 100 pages long.]
On re-reading, I discovered there was much that I had forgotten. Also, it's a rather complex story, so I have to admit that I'm not sure that I completely understood it. I would probably have to re-read the story again before I'd feel entirely comfortable.
At any rate, the main idea seems to be that, once time travel is possible, an association will arise which attempts to "doctor" history in order to improve the outcome or smooth over human suffering. A question necessarily arises concerning whether or not such a doctoring attempt can ever succeed without resulting in unintended and undesirable consequences.
It's all very cleverly set up, using Cecil Rhodes (the diamond magnate after whom the "Rhodes Scholarship" is named) as a historical linchpin.
Crowley's writing is lush and engaging. His ability to mix the historical and the fantastical is probably on par with the ability of Borges. [Note: I read this story in the collection: Novelties & Souvenirs. Approx. 100 pages long.]
March 4, 2022
ENGLISH: This novella looks like a chapter of Poul Anderson's Guardians of Time. The historical basis is well researched, centered around a real historical character (Cecil Rhodes).
The jumps in time are so random as the theory of time behind this story, not so different from Anderson's. I had no problem to surmise the identity of the President Pro Tem.
ESPAÑOL: Esta novela corta parece un capítulo del Guardians of Time de Poul Anderson. El fundamento histórico está bien investigado y se centra en un personaje real (Cecil Rhodes).
Los saltos en el tiempo son tan aleatorios como la teoría del tiempo que hay detrás de esta historia, que no difiere mucho de la de Anderson. No me costó trabajo adivinar la identidad del Presidente Pro Tem.
The jumps in time are so random as the theory of time behind this story, not so different from Anderson's. I had no problem to surmise the identity of the President Pro Tem.
ESPAÑOL: Esta novela corta parece un capítulo del Guardians of Time de Poul Anderson. El fundamento histórico está bien investigado y se centra en un personaje real (Cecil Rhodes).
Los saltos en el tiempo son tan aleatorios como la teoría del tiempo que hay detrás de esta historia, que no difiere mucho de la de Anderson. No me costó trabajo adivinar la identidad del Presidente Pro Tem.
February 12, 2018
A small gem of a time travel story focused on the British Empire keeping its world domination and maintaining its African colonies.
It’s cleverly constructed and beautifully written with a at times complex language, which challenges a reader like me who not native English spoken.
It’s probably a book I will return to and enjoy even more the second time around.
It’s cleverly constructed and beautifully written with a at times complex language, which challenges a reader like me who not native English spoken.
It’s probably a book I will return to and enjoy even more the second time around.
February 16, 2022
Interesting idea, covered efficiently in a fairly short book.
August 29, 2023
Caspar Last has invented a time machine, though he only calls it that out of convenience because it isn't a machine and he doesn't believe that time exists. While there's much he could do with it, he's only interested in using it once to enrich himself. To him, it's all in the research and proof that it works. After that, who cares? It's all proven and doesn't matter any longer and it's onto the next project. As you'd expect, someone else feels differently and acquires the ability to time travel from him. Denys Winterset is approached by a man who offers him to join a time traveling organization that changes the past to their preferences. Originally it was founded by Cecil Rhodes, leader of Rhodesia, for the purpose of furthering the British Empire, but their aims have now changed. They believe Winterset to be integral to their existence, and he is, far more than any of them could ever know.
Crowley is a joy to simply read, even when the actual content isn't all that suited to my tastes, though in this case it was. Time travel is one of my preferred themes and I like to see what sort the author employs. In this case time traveling is orthogonal, meaning the traveler can never return to the exact same timeline they were in and they always travel to one that is slightly different. Due to its peculiarities this results in quite the consequences. The closest other to it that I can think of is the film, Primer, though elements of it can be seen in various other time travel media, ranging from All You Zombies to El ministerio del tiempo. A detailed explanation is given for technical aspects of how the time travel would hypothetically work, though the specific process isn't ever explicitly shown. As happens with time travel stories, the narrative isn't told linearly, and there's some initial obfuscation of identities, though eventually everything is clearly explained to the reader.
In terms of its historical accuracy, it reads very well and is clearly researched, which is evidenced by the bibliography provided at the end. Sometimes (oftentimes?) with science fiction the origin of the book simply seems to be that the author has been deeply researching some area of interest and then decide they want to write about it. I've seen this in a wide variety of works and overall I think doing so enhances their writing with the distinct flavor of their research. That goes from "write what you know" to "write what you learned."
Once again I'd like to thank yitr for suggesting that I read Crowley sooner than later. It's only a matter of time before I'll have read almost all, if not all, of Crowley's fiction. All of his works that I've read so far have had the sort of imaginative novelty that I particularly appreciate. Each one has that special something where even if I didn't enjoy it I can still respect it for what it is. Even his most read work is only mildly known, so I recommend you read him.
Crowley is a joy to simply read, even when the actual content isn't all that suited to my tastes, though in this case it was. Time travel is one of my preferred themes and I like to see what sort the author employs. In this case time traveling is orthogonal, meaning the traveler can never return to the exact same timeline they were in and they always travel to one that is slightly different. Due to its peculiarities this results in quite the consequences. The closest other to it that I can think of is the film, Primer, though elements of it can be seen in various other time travel media, ranging from All You Zombies to El ministerio del tiempo. A detailed explanation is given for technical aspects of how the time travel would hypothetically work, though the specific process isn't ever explicitly shown. As happens with time travel stories, the narrative isn't told linearly, and there's some initial obfuscation of identities, though eventually everything is clearly explained to the reader.
In terms of its historical accuracy, it reads very well and is clearly researched, which is evidenced by the bibliography provided at the end. Sometimes (oftentimes?) with science fiction the origin of the book simply seems to be that the author has been deeply researching some area of interest and then decide they want to write about it. I've seen this in a wide variety of works and overall I think doing so enhances their writing with the distinct flavor of their research. That goes from "write what you know" to "write what you learned."
Once again I'd like to thank yitr for suggesting that I read Crowley sooner than later. It's only a matter of time before I'll have read almost all, if not all, of Crowley's fiction. All of his works that I've read so far have had the sort of imaginative novelty that I particularly appreciate. Each one has that special something where even if I didn't enjoy it I can still respect it for what it is. Even his most read work is only mildly known, so I recommend you read him.
Read
November 11, 2025Kickass time-travel novella. Like Crowley's other works, when I finished, it left me with the I-don't-even-know-what-to-think-about-that feeling but has since had a glow-up in my mind. Its fun, its interesting, its well-written, it plays with the actual history of the British empire, indulges in all the weird paradoxes of a time-travel story, and even has giant lizard people.
June 17, 2023
While in some ways the classic time travel story, it comes with its own little twists on it. I especially liked that the historic event it focused on had to do with British colonialism in Africa, not something we see often in stories like that, or at all, really.
August 12, 2016
“It amuses me,” Sir Geoffrey said, “how constant it is in human nature to think that things might have gone on differently from the way they did. In a man’s own life, first of all: how he might have taken this or that very different route, except for this or that accident, this or that slight push—if he’d only known then, and so on. And then in history as well, we ruminate endlessly, if, what if, if only … The world seems always somehow malleable to our minds, or to our imaginations anyway.”
This novella is mostly the unusual adventures of an antediluvian secret society, like the anarchist one from Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday, except its quite state obedient and is run by the likes of Rip Hunter's Time Masters with a Victorian agenda- not letting the Sun reach any west over the great Empire. More like an Adjustment Bureau functioning behind a Narnia cupboard unaffected by Time and Space. Tiring at times with all the orthogonal logic of past and future, mirthless even, having it all explained in comported polished long sentences. But hang on till the splintered timeline starts making sense and enjoy the ride.
I happened to read the free sample chapter and immediately buy myself the rest then and there itself, rather unusual of me. And later learned the very existence of Cecil Rhodes, who wanted a secret society to ensure supremacy of British Empire over centuries, intriguing conspiracy theory material there. Also multiverse, negated past timelines, finding one self over time, manipulation of history in this brilliant, hugger mugger tale.
Like those very time travelers who returned to a present, not truly the one they departed from, post read me seems to have returned to a better bitter self. Definitely going to re read and with my limited knowledge I would like to classify this as advanced read in the time travel genre.
https://10thandnoble.wordpress.com/20...
This novella is mostly the unusual adventures of an antediluvian secret society, like the anarchist one from Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday, except its quite state obedient and is run by the likes of Rip Hunter's Time Masters with a Victorian agenda- not letting the Sun reach any west over the great Empire. More like an Adjustment Bureau functioning behind a Narnia cupboard unaffected by Time and Space. Tiring at times with all the orthogonal logic of past and future, mirthless even, having it all explained in comported polished long sentences. But hang on till the splintered timeline starts making sense and enjoy the ride.
I happened to read the free sample chapter and immediately buy myself the rest then and there itself, rather unusual of me. And later learned the very existence of Cecil Rhodes, who wanted a secret society to ensure supremacy of British Empire over centuries, intriguing conspiracy theory material there. Also multiverse, negated past timelines, finding one self over time, manipulation of history in this brilliant, hugger mugger tale.
Like those very time travelers who returned to a present, not truly the one they departed from, post read me seems to have returned to a better bitter self. Definitely going to re read and with my limited knowledge I would like to classify this as advanced read in the time travel genre.
https://10thandnoble.wordpress.com/20...
January 18, 2022
This is a novella about time travel. Its structure jumps back and forth between several times and timelines. That, in itself, is interesting. The problem is that too much of the story is taken up by talking about the complexities of time travel, how the different times relate, etc. This made it difficult to keep my interest, even though the overall idea is good.
August 27, 2016
A mind-boggling, highly literate take on time travel, the necessity of evil, and the character of British rule. It would be a mistake to dimiss this as a simple mobius story - it's more complex and thoughtful than that description implies, and at novella-length, richer than most longer works.
October 29, 2015
Absolutely have to reread this every five years or so. The most intricate and haunting time-travel story I've ever encountered, impossible to describe (or remember, for that matter).
Please be aware that you can also find it in Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction
Please be aware that you can also find it in Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction
March 12, 2023
Beautifully written and elegiac novel about time travel and the tragedy of empire. I’m not sure the plot truly makes sense; but then, I’m not sure any time travel story makes sense. No matter. This is a minor masterpiece.
July 13, 2009
A devastating novel about imperialism and time travel. A little gem.
October 22, 2010
[This review also appears on FingerFlow.com, a site for review and discussion of creative works.]
Consider the following scenario: you are granted one trip to any time in the past. You cannot bring anything with you to the past or back to the future that will not fit in your pocket. You must take extreme care not to alter history or to alter it as little as possible. How would you make yourself rich? Buying the stock of a rich company in escrow for your unborn self wouldn’t work and buying rare artifacts would be impossible without acquiring currency from that time period.
Caspar Last faces this question in John Crowley’s novella, Great Work of Time. He invents a time machine, and quite practically, feels he should benefit monetarily from it. And he comes up with a pretty clever scheme: he travels back over 100 years into the past to acquire a rare stamp that he will either sell at auction or to the owner of the only other existing example of this stamp (who would presumably pay to have it destroyed to preserve the value of his own stamp).
Soon after his return from the past, Last is approached by the President pro tem (“for the time being”) of a secret society called the Otherhood and asked to hand over his time machine. Though he tries to refuse, Last’s protest is over before it begins; the President had travelled from the future using Last’s own machine, meaning that, at some point in the Otherhood’s past and somewhere in Last’s future, the act of handing over the time machine had already occurred. And if you thought that point was confusing, it gets more complicated: the Otherhood suspected that Last wouldn’t accept a cash offer for his machine while he was in possession of a rare stamp, so they planted a fake price guide in his home to fool him into thinking that his trip had altered the future, making his once valuable stamp worthless . Professor Last, being a genius of “orthogonal logic,” had anticipated that his trip could alter history in some minor way, so, with no other alternative, he agrees to sell his time machine for a generous price.
Though the episode between Last and the President is an entertaining enough story in itself, it makes up only a small part of a much larger narrative about altering history and the responsibility a person has to the world, a complicated concept when possible worlds can become actual worlds. Denys Winterset, a loyal and devoted citizen of the world-spanning British Empire, is asked by an enigmatic man named Davenant to join the Otherhood. He learns of the secret history of the Otherhood: that Cecil Rhodes, an imperialist and entrepreneur, left a sum of money in his will to create a secret society charged with the extension and preservation of the British Empire. Winterset is made to understand that the world he knows exists only because of the machinations and manipulations of the Otherhood. He also learns of the Original Situation: where the minor war of 1914 became the Great War of our reality. This war, of course, led directly into the next World War, with the total result being the death of many millions, the invention of atomic weapons and the Cold War. Winterset is appalled by this information and is convinced to join the secret society to preserve the Empire he loves and the affluent, peaceful world the Empire ensures. Inside the club of the Otherhood, which exists outside of time, the actions necessary to create his world have yet to occur and Winterset is given an assignment vital to the existence of his altered world: the assassination of Cecil Rhodes before the wealthy imperialist changes his will in 1893 and removes the Otherhood’s endowment.
Meanwhile, the President pro tem has traveled into the future, breaking a cardinal rule of the Otherhood, and finds a world diverging significantly from the world the Otherhood was trying to create. This world is inhabited by creatures quite different from humans: lizard-men called Draconics, angelic, faerie-like beings and ominous, wise hominids calling themselves Magi. And the President loves it. The world is stark, strange, fantastical and eccentric, but it somehow feels right to the President, as if that is how the world should be. The only way this world could have been created was by breaking another one of the rules of the Otherhood: traveling to a time before the death of Cecil Rhodes. The fabric of this world has been made weak due to the constant changes in the timeline, creating fluctuations in reality that would eventually destroy it. The angels, the oldest race on this world and most sensitive to the manipulations of time, reveal to the President the end result of the Otherhood’s actions: a world consisting of only a large, dark forest, with roots descending into the ocean. No creatures, no life, no change.
As right as the world may seem to him, he is convinced by a Magus and an angel that he must restore the original timeline. In order to achieve this, the President would have to break a third rule of the Otherhood by traveling to a point in time he had already been to: the assassination of Cecil Rhodes. To prevent the creation of the Otherhood, the President would have to stop his younger self, Denys Winterset from killing Rhodes. Because Crowley is such a brilliant crafter of stories, he doesn’t give us an easy ending once the President’s identity is revealed. In a twisted denouement, a third Winterset in a world where the Original Situation had occurred discovers an older version of himself living in Africa. This older version recounts the story of his life to the younger Winterset: how he had been sent to kill Rhodes and how a distraction prevented him from doing so; a distraction he believed to have been created with the intent of stopping him, thus restoring the world to the way it was supposed to be, but stranding him in the past.
John Crowley deftly manages to present a complicated scenario in a way which doesn’t bewilder and confuse the reader. Time travel is tricky to convey and there were moments during my reading of Great Work of Time when I thought I should go back and reread previous sections, but I plowed ahead and Crowley found a way to bring everything full circle by the end. Even so, I look forward to coming back to this story and reading it again, not only because of intricate and fascinating plot, but also the richness of the language. Crowley deliberately uses intricate language while keeping things vague, having the effect of mystifiying you and making you savor every word. Each sentence reflects the time and thought put into its construction; they are not merely describing the action. Perhaps most impressively, Crowley takes the reader to different worlds and time periods, introducing a variety of characters and circumstances, and yet the reader doesn’t lose the thread of the story.
What’s particularly endearing about Great Work of Time are the unexpected places Crowley takes this far-from-standard time travel story. The opening chapter about Casper Last and his quest for riches seems quite distant from Winterset’s struggle with killing a man to create a better world. Even more shocking was the world of the future; a fantasy world which should have seemed out of place in a science fiction story, but didn’t. Last’s desire to improve his lot in life, a desire anyone could understand, seems small and petty when compared to the mission of the Otherhood, to create a world in which everyone’s lot in life is improved. However, the President’s reaction to the future world reveal a corruption of the Otherhood’s mission; the world of strange races, rigid hierarchies and no change are appealing to the President. This future world feels proper and correct to him, and so the objective of an organization to better the world is subjugated to the personal feelings of one man. Last’s purpose in creating his time machine was to fulfill his own desires, and the President discovers that the future was built upon the desires of one man as well: himself. Winterset, in his different incarnations, is driven by the responsibility he feels toward bettering the world. Ultimately, this is what drives him to travel into the past to kill Rhodes. It is also what causes him to return to that time period and prevent the killing. For all the good that the Otherhood is trying to achieve, Winterset realizes that men cannot guide the entire world, for they will guide it to oblivion. I wonder if the final pages of the story, where the younger Winterset smuggles the older, time-traveling Winterset out of Africa and into England, is the author’s obtuse way of saying that a man is not responsible for the entire world, but is responsible for helping himself.
Consider the following scenario: you are granted one trip to any time in the past. You cannot bring anything with you to the past or back to the future that will not fit in your pocket. You must take extreme care not to alter history or to alter it as little as possible. How would you make yourself rich? Buying the stock of a rich company in escrow for your unborn self wouldn’t work and buying rare artifacts would be impossible without acquiring currency from that time period.
Caspar Last faces this question in John Crowley’s novella, Great Work of Time. He invents a time machine, and quite practically, feels he should benefit monetarily from it. And he comes up with a pretty clever scheme: he travels back over 100 years into the past to acquire a rare stamp that he will either sell at auction or to the owner of the only other existing example of this stamp (who would presumably pay to have it destroyed to preserve the value of his own stamp).
Soon after his return from the past, Last is approached by the President pro tem (“for the time being”) of a secret society called the Otherhood and asked to hand over his time machine. Though he tries to refuse, Last’s protest is over before it begins; the President had travelled from the future using Last’s own machine, meaning that, at some point in the Otherhood’s past and somewhere in Last’s future, the act of handing over the time machine had already occurred. And if you thought that point was confusing, it gets more complicated: the Otherhood suspected that Last wouldn’t accept a cash offer for his machine while he was in possession of a rare stamp, so they planted a fake price guide in his home to fool him into thinking that his trip had altered the future, making his once valuable stamp worthless . Professor Last, being a genius of “orthogonal logic,” had anticipated that his trip could alter history in some minor way, so, with no other alternative, he agrees to sell his time machine for a generous price.
Though the episode between Last and the President is an entertaining enough story in itself, it makes up only a small part of a much larger narrative about altering history and the responsibility a person has to the world, a complicated concept when possible worlds can become actual worlds. Denys Winterset, a loyal and devoted citizen of the world-spanning British Empire, is asked by an enigmatic man named Davenant to join the Otherhood. He learns of the secret history of the Otherhood: that Cecil Rhodes, an imperialist and entrepreneur, left a sum of money in his will to create a secret society charged with the extension and preservation of the British Empire. Winterset is made to understand that the world he knows exists only because of the machinations and manipulations of the Otherhood. He also learns of the Original Situation: where the minor war of 1914 became the Great War of our reality. This war, of course, led directly into the next World War, with the total result being the death of many millions, the invention of atomic weapons and the Cold War. Winterset is appalled by this information and is convinced to join the secret society to preserve the Empire he loves and the affluent, peaceful world the Empire ensures. Inside the club of the Otherhood, which exists outside of time, the actions necessary to create his world have yet to occur and Winterset is given an assignment vital to the existence of his altered world: the assassination of Cecil Rhodes before the wealthy imperialist changes his will in 1893 and removes the Otherhood’s endowment.
Meanwhile, the President pro tem has traveled into the future, breaking a cardinal rule of the Otherhood, and finds a world diverging significantly from the world the Otherhood was trying to create. This world is inhabited by creatures quite different from humans: lizard-men called Draconics, angelic, faerie-like beings and ominous, wise hominids calling themselves Magi. And the President loves it. The world is stark, strange, fantastical and eccentric, but it somehow feels right to the President, as if that is how the world should be. The only way this world could have been created was by breaking another one of the rules of the Otherhood: traveling to a time before the death of Cecil Rhodes. The fabric of this world has been made weak due to the constant changes in the timeline, creating fluctuations in reality that would eventually destroy it. The angels, the oldest race on this world and most sensitive to the manipulations of time, reveal to the President the end result of the Otherhood’s actions: a world consisting of only a large, dark forest, with roots descending into the ocean. No creatures, no life, no change.
As right as the world may seem to him, he is convinced by a Magus and an angel that he must restore the original timeline. In order to achieve this, the President would have to break a third rule of the Otherhood by traveling to a point in time he had already been to: the assassination of Cecil Rhodes. To prevent the creation of the Otherhood, the President would have to stop his younger self, Denys Winterset from killing Rhodes. Because Crowley is such a brilliant crafter of stories, he doesn’t give us an easy ending once the President’s identity is revealed. In a twisted denouement, a third Winterset in a world where the Original Situation had occurred discovers an older version of himself living in Africa. This older version recounts the story of his life to the younger Winterset: how he had been sent to kill Rhodes and how a distraction prevented him from doing so; a distraction he believed to have been created with the intent of stopping him, thus restoring the world to the way it was supposed to be, but stranding him in the past.
John Crowley deftly manages to present a complicated scenario in a way which doesn’t bewilder and confuse the reader. Time travel is tricky to convey and there were moments during my reading of Great Work of Time when I thought I should go back and reread previous sections, but I plowed ahead and Crowley found a way to bring everything full circle by the end. Even so, I look forward to coming back to this story and reading it again, not only because of intricate and fascinating plot, but also the richness of the language. Crowley deliberately uses intricate language while keeping things vague, having the effect of mystifiying you and making you savor every word. Each sentence reflects the time and thought put into its construction; they are not merely describing the action. Perhaps most impressively, Crowley takes the reader to different worlds and time periods, introducing a variety of characters and circumstances, and yet the reader doesn’t lose the thread of the story.
What’s particularly endearing about Great Work of Time are the unexpected places Crowley takes this far-from-standard time travel story. The opening chapter about Casper Last and his quest for riches seems quite distant from Winterset’s struggle with killing a man to create a better world. Even more shocking was the world of the future; a fantasy world which should have seemed out of place in a science fiction story, but didn’t. Last’s desire to improve his lot in life, a desire anyone could understand, seems small and petty when compared to the mission of the Otherhood, to create a world in which everyone’s lot in life is improved. However, the President’s reaction to the future world reveal a corruption of the Otherhood’s mission; the world of strange races, rigid hierarchies and no change are appealing to the President. This future world feels proper and correct to him, and so the objective of an organization to better the world is subjugated to the personal feelings of one man. Last’s purpose in creating his time machine was to fulfill his own desires, and the President discovers that the future was built upon the desires of one man as well: himself. Winterset, in his different incarnations, is driven by the responsibility he feels toward bettering the world. Ultimately, this is what drives him to travel into the past to kill Rhodes. It is also what causes him to return to that time period and prevent the killing. For all the good that the Otherhood is trying to achieve, Winterset realizes that men cannot guide the entire world, for they will guide it to oblivion. I wonder if the final pages of the story, where the younger Winterset smuggles the older, time-traveling Winterset out of Africa and into England, is the author’s obtuse way of saying that a man is not responsible for the entire world, but is responsible for helping himself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2025
The second book I've read by Crowley (after the stunning Engine Summer) and I was not disappointed. The writing was rich and layered as I've come to expect, the conception of the story intriguing (albeit somewhat confusing at points), and the ending poignant. Ultimately, it is a time travel story about the heartbreaking futility of our attempts to reverse the course of time - to change it, halt it, alter its course in any way. Could going back and killing one man truly change the course of history? Could it have held back the many horrors of the 20th century, from the First World War to the gas chambers of Auschwitz? Could the British Empire have slowed the technological fluorescence - and its attendant slaughters - of the first half of the 20th century if it had simply not declined? If the sun had never set on it? These and other questions make up the main thrust of the novel.
It was very enjoyable - I finished it in one sitting - interesting, and well-written. Honestly, it's a testament to Crowley's authorial powers that he could cram a relatively dense and complex story in such a small amount of text. This is definitely not for everyone - I'd recommend to have a solid foundational knowledge of the Scramble for Africa, Cecil Rhodes, and British history up until WWII - but I'd definitely class it amongst the best time travel stories I've ever read.
It was very enjoyable - I finished it in one sitting - interesting, and well-written. Honestly, it's a testament to Crowley's authorial powers that he could cram a relatively dense and complex story in such a small amount of text. This is definitely not for everyone - I'd recommend to have a solid foundational knowledge of the Scramble for Africa, Cecil Rhodes, and British history up until WWII - but I'd definitely class it amongst the best time travel stories I've ever read.
November 9, 2021
Novella originally published in Novelty: Four Stories, May 1989. 1990 World Fantasy Award winner and 1990 Nebula Award finalist.
This is a complex and intricate time travel story, certainly one of the best of its type, that looks at the inevitability of events and the hubris of those who have the power to try and change those events. There are several plot threads that slowly converge near the end, and certain characters playing more than one role. This is the kind of story that would reveal new insights upon rereading. John Crowley is probably best known for his novel Little, Big (1981), but he certainly shows with this novella that he is a master wordsmith at any length.
I read this story in the anthology Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction (2004). 102 pages
This is a complex and intricate time travel story, certainly one of the best of its type, that looks at the inevitability of events and the hubris of those who have the power to try and change those events. There are several plot threads that slowly converge near the end, and certain characters playing more than one role. This is the kind of story that would reveal new insights upon rereading. John Crowley is probably best known for his novel Little, Big (1981), but he certainly shows with this novella that he is a master wordsmith at any length.
I read this story in the anthology Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction (2004). 102 pages
December 8, 2020
What I loved about this book is what I've loved in Crowley's Endless Things and Daemonomania--and how can I say it succintly? That Crowley writes so beautifully about our strange human desire for things to be other than they are, to revise the "Original Situation." (It's a desire built mostly on good will and imagination.) Then we try to tinker with reality and realize we are quite limited beings, and our actions open huge potentials for things to go wrong, or at least to go contrary to what we expect.
What's unique to this novel (I think), is the linkage of time and change to empire and a lasting peace. This book considers the human search for ultimate control, for the absence of change, which ultimately leads to the poetic image of a forest growing in the sea. This human quest leads to violence: Denys Winterset not only fails to prevent World War I (and is forced to witness it), he himself suffers the violence of a life cleft in two (the old Denys and the young Denys). And finally, he is saddled with the responsibility of destroying the imaginary worlds of the angels and magis. Thus instead of preventing suffering, he has multiplied it.
What's unique to this novel (I think), is the linkage of time and change to empire and a lasting peace. This book considers the human search for ultimate control, for the absence of change, which ultimately leads to the poetic image of a forest growing in the sea. This human quest leads to violence: Denys Winterset not only fails to prevent World War I (and is forced to witness it), he himself suffers the violence of a life cleft in two (the old Denys and the young Denys). And finally, he is saddled with the responsibility of destroying the imaginary worlds of the angels and magis. Thus instead of preventing suffering, he has multiplied it.
July 23, 2023
I enjoyed Crowley’s Little, Big and after doing a bit of digging I decided on this as my followup.
I feel like this novella presents itself as a looping puzzlebox of a story and I was surprised to find it to be one of the most linear and straightforward time travel stories I’ve ever seen. Not in itself a bad thing - just a mismatch between the synopsis on the back of the book and the actual text.
Unfortunately that straightforwardness extends to its themes. Partway through the book the inevitable question gets asked… should people with good intentions play god, especially when they're trying to do it by way of preserving the British Empire? Probably not, right? Pretty boilerplate stuff. And without anything else to really latch onto - a twistier plot, other themes, characters with personality and stakes we really care about - I didn’t find it very noteworthy.
There's a couple amusing moments earlier in the book - the way in which time travel is discovered, the Otherhood's rules and their order of importance... but from there the proceedings are fairly dry.
I'd like to give Crowley another shot, but this one didn't do it for me.
I feel like this novella presents itself as a looping puzzlebox of a story and I was surprised to find it to be one of the most linear and straightforward time travel stories I’ve ever seen. Not in itself a bad thing - just a mismatch between the synopsis on the back of the book and the actual text.
Unfortunately that straightforwardness extends to its themes. Partway through the book the inevitable question gets asked… should people with good intentions play god, especially when they're trying to do it by way of preserving the British Empire? Probably not, right? Pretty boilerplate stuff. And without anything else to really latch onto - a twistier plot, other themes, characters with personality and stakes we really care about - I didn’t find it very noteworthy.
There's a couple amusing moments earlier in the book - the way in which time travel is discovered, the Otherhood's rules and their order of importance... but from there the proceedings are fairly dry.
I'd like to give Crowley another shot, but this one didn't do it for me.
October 17, 2019
This ingenious little novel manages to be a clever time travel story, an engaging fantasy and a cautionary tale about nostalgia without being preachy. That isn't easy because time travel as a literary landscape is littered with logical and ontological pitfalls, but Mr. Crowley skillfully tiptoes along the fine line between satire and sermon. The tone here is closer to Laumer than Moorcock, but it's really in its own league. The prose is finer than what those two authors generally achieve (and I like them both) and it's free of Laumer's flippancy and Moorcock's cynicism. Ultimately, this is a book for those who love to read. Much of the enjoyment is in the experience rather than the message. That may sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, but that's not my intention. This book isn't for everyone, but if you're not burdened with preconceptions about what makes a good time travel story, the journey of Caspar Last will both impress and entertain you.
August 14, 2018
Nao sou grande fã de história alternativa, nem da história do Império Britânico (neste caso o seu papel em África). Este livro combina as duas, tornando-o particularmente aborrecido...
Fica a boa exploração da temática das viagens no tempo, das suas possibilidades e paradoxos (o livro é reconhecido como um dos que melhor aborda o tema).
Pessoalmente recomendo Robert Heinlein, numa short story (que se lê em 15m) obrigatória, sobre os paradoxos das viagens no tempo: All You Zombies,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...,
e numa versão mais actual sobre o mesmo assunto, Dark Matter, de Blake Crouch,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Fica a boa exploração da temática das viagens no tempo, das suas possibilidades e paradoxos (o livro é reconhecido como um dos que melhor aborda o tema).
Pessoalmente recomendo Robert Heinlein, numa short story (que se lê em 15m) obrigatória, sobre os paradoxos das viagens no tempo: All You Zombies,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...,
e numa versão mais actual sobre o mesmo assunto, Dark Matter, de Blake Crouch,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
September 2, 2018
Brilliant and complex. At first, I didn't know if I'd make it through this brief time-travel novel. I found the first two chapters very difficult. Here, Crowley eschews explication. You sort of have to circle around the gates of a nearly-closed system until you find a soft spot in the formidable internal logic that will let you inside. That is to say: I read the first couple chapters twice. But when the story takes off, it's a true marvel. A bit Borges-ian. Delightful.
[4.5 stars, pending a second reading!]
[4.5 stars, pending a second reading!]
January 13, 2025
There are certain elements that I enjoyed rather than the story as a whole. The approach to time travel and its consequences that Crowley writes are certainly unique and create a complex world and cast. I like several of the characters' names; Cecil Rhodes, who I think was a real person, and Caspar Last (I thought Crowley was describing a boat for several sentences before realizing Caspar was a human character).
July 3, 2025
I can well imagine that this didn't go down well with some people in England.
There are probably some who would see nothing wrong with the very different British Empire described as the result of Cecil Rhodes dying in 1893...
My complaint would be that I really would like to know how the heck that happened... A few more chapters about this would have been nice.
Actually, not quite 5 stars, since Mr Crowley is a professional writer.
There are probably some who would see nothing wrong with the very different British Empire described as the result of Cecil Rhodes dying in 1893...
My complaint would be that I really would like to know how the heck that happened... A few more chapters about this would have been nice.
Actually, not quite 5 stars, since Mr Crowley is a professional writer.
August 27, 2024
I loved this book not only for the wonderful story but for the gorgeous production values of Sub Press. This is an absolute gem of a novella, an enthralling, circuitous time travel story that is quite superbly written.
February 14, 2020
Deftly plays with the paradoxes of time travel, but in the end, it's all a social construct, and so what if it is? Our disordered world may be someone else's empire of peace.
July 2, 2023
clever, atmospheric, full of twisty paradoxes - a kind of fever dream of a time travel tale - brief but very enjoyable.
January 20, 2025
Great time travel story that deserves its reputation. Complicated storylines that were brought together by the end of the story in an excellent way. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
August 30, 2025
thought it glamorized british imperialism until I got to the end, & normally I wouldn't put up with that fake-out, but it's well-written like 80 pages lol
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