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anything that would make a visible change in the world of eighty-five million B.C., such as making a footprint in the earth, the space-time forces snapped him forward to the present to prevent a paradox. And the violence of the passage practically tore him to bits. Now that this is better understood, the professor won t send anybody to a Page 68 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html period less than five thousand years prior to the time that some time traveler has already explored, because it would be too easy to do some act, like chopping down a tree or losing some durable artifact, that would affect the later world. Over longer periods, he tells me, such changes average out and are lost in the stream of time. We had a rough time after that, with the bad publicity and all, though we did collect a fee from James s estate. Luckily for us, a steel manufacturer turned up who wanted a mastodon s head for his den. I understand these things better now, too. The disaster hadn t been wholly James s fault. I shouldn t have taken him when I knew what a spoiled, unstable sort of bloke he was. And if Holtzinger could have used a really heavy gun, he d probably have knocked the tyrannosaur down, even if he didn t kill it, and so have given the rest of us a chance to finish it. So, Mr. Seligman, that s why I won t take you to that period to hunt. There are plenty of other eras, and if you look them over I m sure you ll find something to suit you. But not the Jurassic or the Cretaceous. You re just not big enough to handle a gun for dinosaur. POUL ANDERSON A winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Poul Anderson (1926 2001) wrote more than fifty novels and hundreds of short stories since his science-fiction debut in 1947. His first novel, Brain Wave, is a classic example of the techniques of traditional science fiction, extrapolating the impact that an abrupt universal rise in intelligence would have on the totality of human civilization in the twentieth century. Anderson is highly regarded for the detail of his stories. His vast Technic History saga, a multibook chronicle of interstellar exploration and empire building, covers fifty centuries of future history spread out over the rise and fall of three empires of a galactic federation. The vast scope of the series gave Anderson the opportunity to develop colorful, well-developed characters and to explore the long-term impact of certain ideas and attitudes free enterprise, militarism, imperialism, individual styles of governing on the society and political structure of a created world. Two characters, distinct products of their different times and civilizations, dominate the series most notable episodes: Falstaffian rogue merchant Nicholas van Rijn, hero of The Man Who Counts, Satan s World, and Mirkheim ; and Ensign Dominic Flandry, whose adventures include We Claim These Stars, Earthman, Go Home! and A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows. Anderson has tackled many of science fiction s classic themes, including near light-speed travel in Tau Zero, time travel in the series of Time Patrol stories collected as Guardians of Time, and acclerated evolution in Fire Time. He is known for his interweaving of science fiction and history, notably in his novel The High Crusade, a superior first-contact tale in which a medieval army captures an alien spaceship. Much of Anderson s fantasy is rich with undercurrents of mythology, notably his heroic fantasy Three Hearts and Three Lions, and A Midsummer Tempest, an alternate history drawn from the background of A Midsummer Night s Dream. Anderson received the Tolkien Memorial Award in 1978. With his wife, Karen, he wrote the King of Ys Celtic fantasy quartet, and with Gordon Dickson the amusing Hoka series. His Page 69 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html short fiction has been collected in numerous volumes, including The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories, All One Universe, Strangers from Earth, and Seven Conquests. The idea of a man going back in time to change the past has been well mined over the decades (L. Sprague de Camp s Lest Darkness Fall and de Camp s short story Aristotle and the Gun are two classic examples). Anderson s The Man Who Came Early is a paradigm of the idea. When all is said and done, a man sent back in time with nothing save what he is carrying on himself is just a man, no matter how grand the ideas he knows or the technology he s used in the his own time. The attention to tenth century Nordic life makes the contrast between the - erstwhile time traveler and his new surroundings all the more real. THE MAN WHO CAME EARLY by Poul Anderson Yes, when a man grows old he has heard so much that is strange there s little more can surprise him. They say the king in Miklagard has a beast of gold before his high seat which stands up and roars. I have it from Eilif Eiriksson, who served in the guard down yonder, and he is a steady fellow when not drunk. He has also seen the Greek fire used, it burns on water. So, priest, I am not unwilling to believe what you say about the White Christ. I have been in England and France myself, and seen how the folk prosper. He must be a very powerful god, to ward so many realms... and did you say that everyone who is baptized will be given a white robe? I would like to have one. They mildew, of course, in this cursed wet Iceland weather, but a small sacrifice to the house-elves should No sacrifices? Come now! I ll give up horseflesh if I must, my teeth not being what they were, but every sensible man knows how much trouble the elves make if they re not fed. Well, let s have another cup and talk about it. How do you like the beer? It s my own brew, you know. The cups I got in England, many years back. I was a young man then... time goes, time goes. Afterward I came back and inherited this, my father s farm, and have not left it since. Well enough to go in viking as a youth, but grown older you see where the real wealth lies: here, in the land and the cattle. Stoke up the fires, Hjalti. It s getting cold. Sometimes I think the winters are colder than when I was a boy. Thorbrand of the Salmondale says so, but he believes the gods are angry because so many are turning from them. You ll have trouble winning Thorbrand over, priest. A stubborn man. Myself, I am open-minded, and willing to listen at least. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |