Many Mansions

by Robert Silverberg

Release: October 1973
Format: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

With eleven years of marriage behind them, Ted and Alice’s fantasies frequently start with a time machine and end with killing one or another of their spouse’s ancestors before they can procreate. So naturally, they each end up at Temponautics, Ltd. Oh, and Ted’s grandpa has some racy fantasies of his own.
In Silverberg’s Something Wild Is Loose (Vol. 3 of his collected stories), he posits that this story is “probably the most complex short story of temporal confusion” since Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” (1941) or “—All You Zombues—” (1959), but I would respectfully disagree. In particular, I would describe Heinlein’s two stories as the most complex short stories of temporal consistency in that there is but a single, static timeline and (in hindsight) every scene locks neatly into place within this one timeline. By contrast, Silverberg story involves multiple time travel choices by the characters in what I would call parallel universes. The confusion, such as it is, stems more from what appears to be alternate scenes in disconnected universes rather than temporal confusion per se.

— Michael Main

On the fourth page Alice finds a clause warning the prospective renter that the company cannot be held liable for any consequences of actions by the renter which wantonly or wilfully interfere with the already determined course of history. She translates that for herself: If you kill your husband’s grandfather, don’t blame us if you get in trouble.

DEBUT

“Many Mansions,” in Universe 3, edited by Terry Carr (Random House, October 1973).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

Translations to French, German

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Age of Reptiles (252 Ma to 66 Ma: Mesozoic/Triassic/Jurassic/Cretaceous): the Pleistocene
Circa AD 1940 to 1949: Most of the travel is to 1947.
Circa AD 2000 to 2099: starting time

Time Travel Methods

Time Booths, Wardrobes, et al.: [. . .] an upright coffin-size box of dark grey metal, festooned with dials and levers.

Themes

Exiled or Intentionally Stranded in Time: Ted’s minor fantasy about stranding Alice
Grandfather Paradox: one minor fantasy of Ted’s
Messing with Someone’s Ancestors: multiple times
Time Cops: two of Alice’s trips, possibly fantasizing
Time Travel Agencies, Safaris, and Tourists: Temponautics, Ltd.

Fictional Tags

Parallel Universes or Dimensions

Groupings

Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, around 1950 or so. Note: This first mention of a time machine is in Martin’s thoughts of sending Alice back so his young self could seduce her. (The snow reminds him of his young manhood, of his days long ago in the East.) This is definitely a fantasy, but as we get further into the story, it becomes impossible for me to tell which forays are fantasy and which are real, so for the remaining trips, even though I won’t mark them all as such. Also, most of the trips are likely round trips, but I won’t mark those either. And finally, there appear to be some alternate timelines that don’t involve any time travel, but those have not been indexed here.
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, perhaps sixty years earlier. Note: Ted goes back to kill Grandpa Martin so that Ted himself will never be born. (There are so many ways he could do it. Slit his wrists. Drive his car off the bridge. Swallow Alice’s whole box of sleeping tabs. Of course those are all old-fashioned ways of killing yourself.) .
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Alice goes back to kill Martin with a thwock to the head by a steel pipe. (She has trouble falling asleep. A strange scene keeps playing itself out obsessively in her mind.) .
From 2006 ⋙ to the Pleistocene. Note: Ted sends Alice on a one-way trip to the Pleistocene. (The time-machine gimmick, Ted tells himself, can be used in ways that don’t quite amount to murder.) .
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Alice goes back to kill Martin with a thwock to the head, and she’s intercepted by the Time Patrol on her way back. (She takes the heavy steel pipe from her purse and lifts it high and brings it down on the back of his head.).
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, March 1947. Note: Martin fantasizes again about sending Alice back to his young self. (If you had the money, Martin asks himself, how far back would you send her? 1947, that would be the year, I guess.
From the Temponautics, Ltd., showroom, 2006 ⋙ to an unspecified location and time at an unknown time. Note: Alice seems to have disappeared to an unknown time and place. (“Would you like to try out one of our demonstration models?” the salesman asks pleasantly.).
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment at an unknown time. Note: Once again, Alice goes back to kill Martin with a thwock to the head, but this time, she’s intercepted by the Time Patrol even before she gets there. (She hurries down the dirty street toward the tall brick building.).
From #6 [continuation] at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: A probable continuation of Martin’s fantasy from the point when Alice arrives at Martin’s apartment. (“But I haven’t any grandson,” he sputters.).
From the Temponautics, Ltd., showroom, 2006 ⋙ to the same showroom, 18 minutes in the past. Note: Ted takes the time machine for a test spin and meets himself in the Temponautics showroom a few minutes in the past. (Alice giggles nervously. “Well, as a matter of fact,” she says to the salesman, “I think I’m willing to let my husband be the guinea pig.”).
From the Temponautics, Ltd., showroom, 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Alice again thinks about going to 1947 in a rented time machine. (Suppose I rent a time machine, Alice thinks, and go back to 1947 and kill Martin?) .
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Martin with Alice in bed, this time making a baby. (They lie peacefully side by side, sweaty, drowsy, exhausted in the good exhaustion that comes after a first-rate screw.).
From 2006 ⋙ to unspecified location, some time before Alice’s parents met. Note: Ted fantasizes about breaking up Alice’s grandparents before they are married. (Ted realizes that it isn’t necessary to kill a person’s grandfather in order to get rid of that person.).
From a continuation of #12 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Probably a continuation Martin’s fantasy with Alice. (Martin still can’t believe any of this, even after she’s slept with him.).
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Alice really goes back this time. (So this is it at last.).
From a continuation of #13 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: In a continuation of Ted’s fantasy]—which really seems to have happened now—Ted returns to 2006, where none of his life as he knows it exists. (He steps from the machine into the year 2006.).
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Alice again arriving in 1947, probably as a result of the technicians mistakenly sending her back before checking on her husband’s creditworthiness. (How peculiar this is, Alice thinks. Like walking into a museum diorama and having it come to life.).
From a continuation of #17 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Now from Martin’s point of view. (The doorbell rings. Martin, freshly showered, is sprawled out naked on his bed, leafing through the new issue of Esquire and thinking vaguely of going out for dinner.).
From a continuation of #18 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Back to Alice’s pov, right after Martin opened the door. (He’s much more attractive than she expected him to be.).
From an alternate continuation of #17 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: From Martin’s PoV, just before he opened the door, but this time Alice attacks him when he lets her in. (He opens the door. The girl in the hallway is young and good-looking, with close-cropped hair and full lips.).
From a continuation of #19 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Alice again, this time getting into the mood to seduce Martin. (She sips the drink. It relaxes her.).
From a continuation of #16 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Still in 2006. (Ted takes a room in one of the commercial hotels downtown.).
From an alternate continuation of #17 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Alice attacks Martin as in #20, but in Martin’s pov, he disarms her. (Martin moves swiftly and purposefully, the way they taught him to do in the army when it’s necessary to disarm a dangerous opponent.
From a continuation of #21 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: (Naked, Alice sinks into Martin’s arms.).
From 2006 ⋙ to somewhere near Martin’s NYC apartment, 1947. Note: Ted follows Alice, perhaps into several of the alternate versions above, and he catches up with Alice before she reaches Martin’s apartment. (So this is the year 1947. Well, well, well.).
From an alternate continuation of #21 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: From Martin’s pov, Ted bursts in on Martin and Alice in bed. (Martin is just getting down to real business when the door of his apartment bursts open and a man rushes in.).
From a continuation of an unspecified previous time travel escapade, 2006 ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Martin calls Alice, but she’s never heard of him. [Alice’s face appears on the telephone screen.].
From an alternate continuation of #17 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: From Alice’s pov, she pulls the laser on Martin, but Ted bursts in before she can shoot Martin. (She draws the laser and the naked man cowers back against the wall in bewilderment.).
From an alternate continuation of #21 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Presented from Martin’s pov, Ted bursts in on Martin and Alice in bed. (The door falls with a crash and this character in peculiar clothing materializes in a cloud of debris.).
From a continuation of #29 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: From Ted’s pov as Martin jumps him. [Ted certainly hadn’t expected to find them in bed together.].
From a continuation of #30 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Poor Martin gets his skull bashed in. (“Who are you?” Martin yells, banging the intruder repeatedly against the wall.).
From an alternate continuation of #30 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Poor Ted gets his neck bashed in. “Who are you?” (Alice doesn’t know what to do. They rolling around on the floor, fighting like wildcats, now Martin on top, now Ted.).
From a continuation of #31 at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: Ted wonders why he hasn’t disappeared. (Ted stares in horror at the crumpled body at his feet.).
From a continuation of one or more of Alice’s escapades at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown time. Note: (Alice steps uncertainly from the machine into the Temponautics showroom.).

INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)

First Release—Silverberg states in Something Wild Is Loose that Terry Carr published this story “in his third of his Universe anthologies, and it has been reprinted several times since.” We assume that the appearance in Carr’s 1973 original anthology series appeared before Silverberg’s 1973 collection, Unfamiliar Territory.