David Surgenar, a veteran of the Cartographical Service—finds himself millions of years back in time on an alien planet with three soldiers and a pregnant female who may hold the key to the whole alien race.
—Michael Main
He had been unwilling to admit his own fears that Man, perfector of a type of thinking which had given him mastery of the three spatial dimensions, had finally encountered a cooler, more judicious culture which had established its dominions in the long gray estuaries of time.

Tags

(8)

Variants

(1)
  1. “Retroactive” by Bob Shaw, in Universe 2, edited by Terry Carr (Ace Books, 1972).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Bob Shaw

Translations

(3)
  1. Dutch.
    Terugwerkend [Retroactive] by Bob Shaw, in SF verhalen 5: De man zonder hoofd, edited by Terry Carr (Luitingh, 1974) .
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Bob Shaw
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Jan Koesen
  2. German.
    Die Zeitfalle [The time fall] by Bob Shaw , in Terra Taschenbuch 247: Die Zeitfalle (Pabel, 24 September 1974).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Bob Shaw
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Walter Brumm
  3. Italian.
    Mina temporale [Time mine] by Bob Shaw, Urania #623, 22 July 1973.
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Bob Shaw
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Hilia Brinis

Derived Works

(1)
  1. Ship of Strangers by Bob Shaw (May 1978).

Indexer Notes

(1)
  1. Variant—I have read only the version in the fix-up novel, Ship of Strangers, although the quotation was also verified as being in the novelette word-for-word.