Peter Norten and his wife Kathy already had a rocky marriage before heading up to Bruce Bunnish’s Colorado mansion for a ten-year reunion with Bruce and two other members of the Northwestern University B Team that Peter captained to a near-win at the North American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. But will Peter and Kathy’s marriage survive the trip, and just how did Bruce end up as the only member of the team to go on to success?
—Michael Main
Time is said to be the fourth dimension, but it differs from the other three in one conspicuous way—our consciousness moves along it. From past to present only, alas. Time itselfdoes not flow, no more than, say, width can flow. Our minds flicker from one instant of time to the next. This analogy was my starting point. I reasoned that if consciousness can move in one direction, it can move in the other direction as well. It took me fifty years to work out the details, however, and make what I call a flashback possible.

Tags

(8)

Variants

(1)
  1. “Unsound Variations” by George R. R. Martin, in Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1982.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin

Translations

(6)
  1. Czech.
    “Nečekaná variace” by George R. R. Martin, in Snové písně 2 (Argo, September 2019).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  2. French.
    “Variantes douteuses” by George R. R. Martin, in Au fil du temps (ActuSF, November 2013).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Éric Holstein
  3. German.
    “Aussichtslose Varianten” by George R. R. Martin, in Kopernikus 7, edited by H. J. Alpers (Moewig, August 1982).
    4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Martin Eisele
  4. German.
    “Aussichtslose Varianten” by George R. R. Martin, in GRRM: Eine Rretrospektive 2 (Fantasy Productions, December 2014).
    5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Werner Fuchs
  5. Hungarian.
    “Bizonytalan variációk” by George R. R. Martin, in Álomdalok 2, (Alexandra Kiadónak, 2019).
    6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  6. Italian.
    “Variante perdenti” by George R. R. Martin, in I canti del sogno, Volume 2 (Mondadori, September 2003).
    7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by George R. R. Martin
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons