Back in 1962, Science Fiction Adventures published John Brunner’s The Society of Time trilogy in three consecutive issues. An abridged version was published by ACE Books later that year under the title Times Without Number. Brunner was displeased with the abridged version and a few years later revised and expanded Times Without Number for the 1969 edition.
Don Miguel Navarro, a Licentiate of the Society of Time, investigates the appearance of a flawless mask from the Aztecs that shows up at a party celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Spanish Armada’s successful invasion of Britain. Navarro discovers that the Time Line has been breached and the Society’s policing of time-travel is in imminent danger.
Meddling with Time is always tricky, but Brunner manages to juggle all of the paradoxes to deliver a suspenseful and exciting tale of saving the world from disaster. If you’re looking for pretzel logic and mind-bending action, reading The Society of Time would be a good investment of your time. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Mike Ashley — 7
The Society of Time Trilogy:
Spoils of Yesterday –15
The Word Not Written — 65
The Fullness of Time — 115
Father of Lies –167
The Analysis — 239
Sounds good. I like these time travel stories. There is a relatively cheap Kindle edition available,
I see Mike Ashley is “flavor of the week” this week, as I am reading two of his anthologies now.
Jeff, Mike Ashley seems to be everywhere. I have a handful of his BRITISH CLASSIC SF anthologies in my Read Real Soon stock.
Read the Ace version years ago. Brunner was one of my favorite writers in the 60;s and early 70’s. He seems to be mostly forgotten now.
Steve, I’m trying to boost awareness of John Brunner’s work. Like you, I considered Brunner one of the best SF writers in the 1960s and early 1970s. Brunner is an underrated writer.
He wrote a couple of great doorstops-Stand On Zanzibar and The Jagged Orbit. I’m especially fond of The Traveler In Black. Like Robert Silverberg his early work was pretty much forgettable but improved greatly in the 60’s.
Steve, I totally agree. Brunner’s early work (mostly halves of ACE Doubles) compared to the mediocre work Silverberg was churning out (as he was learning to write). Both authors made huge quality leaps in the mid-Sixties and early Seventies. I love THE TRAVELER IN BLACK stories and THE JAGGED ORBIT is a terrific book. I need to reread both!
Not a fan especially of “pretzel logic,” as I have a relatively illogical mind–or maybe it’s impatience–but I enjoyed your review.
Matthew, most Time-Travel stories engage in “pretzel logic” and paradoxes. It’s just endemic to the genre.
My comment seems to have gone into the ether…
Todd, the Internet and WORDPRESS seem to get wonky on a regular basis.
Gotcha. I was wondering if it got Comment Moderation Needed like Napier’s comments often seem to.
As I recall, I suggested THE SHEEP LOOK UP was another good one from Brunner, and that his justified complaints about the insanely amateurish copy-editing the US editions of his ’70s books were getting–the most ridiculous being the conversion of two characters into one in the US first edition of THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER–were probably being held against him by US publishers…because How Dare He complain in public. Also, that the relative commercial failure of his historical novel THE GREAT STEAMBOAT RACE (though I suspect Ballantine didn’t put too much muscle into promoting it) also led to him have greater and greater difficulty simply making a living through doing his best work, and taking on what amounted to freelancer’s odd jobs in the ’80s and later.
Todd, I think Brunner’s writing career took a drastic turn for the Worse with the flop of THE GREAT STEAMBOAT RACE.
I’m also a big fan of Brunner ever since reading “Zanzibar”.
Fun fact:
I thought that he was an American author until I read that he was British and I think I remember meeting him (and many other authors/critics/publishers) at the Brighton Eastercon in 1984.
Wolf, much of John Brunner’s work was published in the United States (I suppose the money was better) at a time when Science Fiction magazines were plentiful.
Sorry I missed this last week. I liked the two books I read by Brunner when I was very young and would like to read short stories by him.
Tracy, I think John Brunner wrote wonderful Science Fiction stories and novels…but didn’t get much credit. I’ll be posting about more John Brunner books in the months ahead.