The Time Patrol

In my opinion Time Patrol is one the best Science Fiction adventure tales ever written. If you enjoy action adventures stories or if you are a Sci-Fi buff this classic deserves a space in your library. This is one of those stories that you will want to read over and over. Enjoy!

Together with DeCamp's LEST DARKNESS FALL or Silverbergs's UP THE LINE (and perhaps a few others), no other stories really capture the flavor of history, the paradox of time travel, or the genuine joy at being able to wander into the past as this book of stories. Although the first few have the exact flavor of their era--1950's Astounding magazine--there is nothing really dated or obsolete about these eight stories. Each and every one is a delight, from the long agony of "Odin the Goth", who already knows the doom of those he loves, to the joy of catching time bandits in a beautifully realized ancient Tyre, Poul Anderson gives us stories of the sort that hooked me on science fiction all those years ago... and exactly what brings me back today. The full set of time patrol stories at nearly 800 pages, this is the biggest bargain you'll find this year.

You can't go wrong with Poul Anderson, whose name is nearly synonymous with the genre, and TIME PATROL is an excellent hard science adventure which tells of a time traveler's ethical dilemma. His Patrol seeks to preserve the history they know and protect the future from terrorists who would remold it to their own purposes - even if the past should really be changed.

This book is a reissue or reprint of a collection of short stories that Anderson wrote, starting in the 1950s. A set of now classic tales of time travel. Anderson was a prolific writer, and had several series of stories. But the Time Patrol remains one of my favourite. Even though the first story was written some 50 years ago, it and its successors are still fresh. With a crisp, clean narrative style and a compelling storyline that Anderson was able to flesh out. The stories have never gone out of print for long. Attesting to their enduring popularity. Perhaps one reason for which is due to the wide appeal of well posed time travel plots. These let the reader vicariously partake of an extended longevity, that can span millennia. Sadly, Anderson himself was all too mortal. He died a few years ago. [At least he saw the 21st century.] So unless another talented author takes up this series, with the permission of Anderson's estate, the tale has ended.

Poul Anderson does a terrific job of exploring the possibilities and problems of time travel. The man has a knack for history and sociology. He gets deep into the nitty gritty of daily life in the periods his hero visits in a way not many authors do. He explores obscure, out of the way pockets of time and takes you on a fascinating journey up the threads of time to see how events play one upon another. The Time Patrol stories and the "Trader to the Stars" stories were the ones that hooked me on Anderson years ago. What a wonderful story teller!.................Tom Kin