Sunday 23 February 2014

How Everard Persuades Wanda To Stay in The Time Patrol

Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991).

Wanda wonders whether to go through with Time Patrol training. Everard persuades her.

(i) "'...studying prehistoric life...Earth was a planet fit for the gods...'" (p. 100)

(ii) "'...no harm to your parents...undercover help you can give them...'" (ibid.); 

(iii) "'- centuries of lifespan...never sick...'" (ibid.);

(iv) "'- friendship...splendid people in our ranks...'" (ibid.);

(v) "'- fun. Experiences.'" (ibid.) - the Parthenon new, Chrysopolis on Mars, pre-Columbian Yellowstone, Columbus' departure, Nijinsky dancing, Garrick playing Lear, Michelangelo painting.

Need it only be centuries of lifespan? In Anderson's World Without Stars and The Boat Of A Million Years, some "immortals" live for millennia and must manage memory accumulation. At the end of Boat, the original immortals agree to reconvene a million years hence but, statistically, they are likely to die by accident before then and, secondly, they cannot possibly be the same people after all that time. They will have had to forget everything or almost everything about their earliest centuries.

I would like to read Time Patrol stories about Pummairam completing his training and beginning active service and also about Everard's thousandth birthday.

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