Change war stories—adventures in which two or
more parties are involved in efforts to either
change the course of history or preserve its original
sequence of events—have long been popular in
science fiction, and writers such as Simon Hawke,
Sean Dalton, and Larry Maddock have constructed entire series about such battles. At its
best, the form incorporates two popular elements.
First, authors can play “What if” and speculate
about the consequences of some usually very
minor variation. Second, the plot is generally cast
in the form of a puzzle. The author describes the
consequences of the change and challenges the
protagonist, and the reader, to reason backward to
find out what critical event was altered. The two
most famous sequences are those by Fritz LEIBER
and the Time Patrol series by Poul ANDERSON.
Anderson began chronicling the adventures of
Manse Everard, an agent for the Time Patrol, during the 1950s with such excellent stories as “Delenda Est” (1955) and “Brave to Be a King”
(1959). In each of these, someone has managed to
change a crucial event in the past, distorting everything that followed, and Everard must travel
back through time to reverse the alteration. His
first four adventures were collected as Guardians of
Time (1960), with two further episodes added for
the 1981 edition.
Anderson’s stories contained a substantial
amount of overt action, but he always provided a
detailed, historically accurate background that is
sometimes more interesting than the immediate
surface conflict. More stories followed; despite
their relatively similar plots, each seemed fresh
and interesting because of Anderson’s colorful
historical settings. Two more compilations were
published: The Shield of Time (1990) and The
Time Patrol (1991).
Anderson added two novels to the series in
1983. The Time Patrolman is assembled from
shorter work and is set primarily in ancient Scandinavia. In The Year of the Ransom, ostensibly for
young adults, a conquistador discovers the existence of time travelers and steals one of their machines, leading the protagonist on an exciting
chase through time. The Annals of the Time Patrol
(1984) is an omnibus collection of the series. “Star
of the Sea” (1991) is the best of the later titles in
the series.