WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #9: THE SOCIETY OF TIME: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY AND OTHER STORIES By John Brunner

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

16 thoughts on “WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #9: THE SOCIETY OF TIME: THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY AND OTHER STORIES By John Brunner

  1. Jeff Meyerson

    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.

    Reply
  2. Steve Oerkfitz

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply
      1. Steve Oerkfitz

        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.

      2. george Post author

        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!

    1. Todd Mason

      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.

      Reply
  3. wolf

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply

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