Sidewise in Time
- by Murray Leinster
- Novella
- Science Fiction
- Adults
- No Time Phenomena
- English
- “Sidewise in Time” by Murray Leinster, in Astounding Stories, June 1934.
Leinster’s title provides hope that this could be an early story of mixed-era geography, and indeed, the world of the story does have seemingly different times adjacent to each other. But we soon find out that these different times are actually the result of alternative histories that have been played out to the twentieth century and then appeared in different geographic areas. Yep! The Norse settled the Americas! The South won the war! The dinosaurs never died! And they're all next door to pompous Professor Minott and his merry band of students.
—Michael Main
There are an indefinite nubmer of possible futures, any one of which we would encounter if we took the proper ‘forks” in time.
Tags
(8)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1930 to 1939: home time of the story: 1935.
- Timeline Models
- Branching Timelines: Leinster’s particular alternate timelines are explicitly described as coming from “forks.”
- Mixed Eras: We include this tag as an aid to time travel researchers, although we count this story as only an early example of a setting that’s merely similar to actual mixed-era geography.
- Themes
- Real-World Tags
- Dinosaurs: There are other tags that apply to the various crossover universes, but for now, we'll tag only the dinosaurs that evaded extinction on their timeline.
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- “Sidewise in Time” by Murray Leinster, in Astounding Stories, June 1934.