Monday 14 July 2014

Alternative Everards

Robert Silverberg, "Christmas in Gondwanaland" IN Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois, Editors, Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds (Burton, MI, 2014), pp. 215-244.

In the alternative timeline guarded by Time Patrol II:

"'...we five still get born.'" (p. 229)

So the alternative timeline contains a Manson Everard who may or may not be recruited by Time Patrol II. But the Everard in the story is the original Everard who remembers having worked for Time Patrol I. That Everard can survive into the alternative timeline only if he has traveled further pastward than the moment of change at Alpha Point, then traveled forward again. But we are told that Everard has never traveled pastward as far as Gondwanaland. Therefore, he cannot exist here - and the same probably applies to his four colleagues.

I have only just reasoned that out. Time travel logic is subtle. I will return to this point but am in haste right now.

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