Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks
- by Poul Anderson
- Novella
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- “Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks” by Poul Anderson, in Time Patrolman (Tor, October 1983).
Everard Manse appears to be the sole Patrolman standing between the evil Exaltationists and the fall of ancient Tyre—or possibly the fall of all civilization. Ah, but wait! The loyal street urchin Pum will also stand by his side!
—Michael Main
If Tyre explodes, why, here we’ll be, but our ancestors, your kids, everything we knew, they won’t. It’ll be a whole different history. Whether whatever is left of the Patrol can restore it—somehow head off the disaster—that’s problematical. I’d call it unlikely.
Tags
(13)
- Time Periods
- Timeline Models
- Narrative Hypertime: A clear notion of narrative hypertime occurs when Everard explains the danger to the timeline from an event that is threatened by the desperados: The quantum nature of the continuum—If Tyre explodes, why, here we’ll be, but our ancestors, your kids, everything we knew, they won’t. It’ll be a whole different history. Whether whatever is left of the Patrol can restore it—somehow head off the disaster—that’s problematical. I’d call it unlikely.
- Time Travel Methods
- Time Fliers: A standard two-seat hooper, such as plied the time lanes in untold thousands [. . .]
- Themes
- Bilking Paradox: When Varagan’s future self rescues him.
- Ex Nihilo Knowledge: Patrolmen, who knew how to build matter transmuter, may have given that knowledge to the transmuter’s developer.
- Future Is “Up”: uptime in his native America
- Language Difficulties: The electrocram he had taken, uptime in his native America, could have given him flawless Punic, but that wouldn’t have fit his character; he settled for fluency.
- Self-Visitation: Varagan in the flashback
- Time Cabal: Varagan’s Exaltationists
- Real-World Tags
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- “Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks” by Poul Anderson, in Time Patrolman (Tor, October 1983).