The Chronology Protection Case

by Paul Levinson

When six of seven physicists (plus one pretty wife) in a time-travel research group meet untimely ends, forensic examiner Phil D’Amato suspects that a paradox-paranoid universe is looking out for itself.

The drive back to Westchester was harrowing. Two cars nearly side swiped me, and one big-ass truck stopped so suddenly in front of me that I had all I could do to swerve out of crashing into it and becoming an instant Long Island Expressway pancake.

“The Chronology Protection Case” by Paul Levinson, in Analog, September 1995.

Jeff Harris 1

Loose Ends

by Paul Levinson

“Loose Ends” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 1997.

Loose Ends

by Paul Levinson

Time traveler and history meddler Jeff Harris aims for the 1980s to prevent the Challenger explosion, but instead finds himself in the time of JFK, meets the love of his life, meets other time travelers, toys with the idea of assassinating Nixon and Andropov, and eventually does alter Challenger’s history with unintended consequences for the Soviet Union.

Do you think that, if someone had a mind to do it—if someone really wanted to and had the connections—that someone back in 1982 to 1984 could have forced Andropov from office—could have replaced him with someone not so dictatorial?

“Loose Ends” by Paul Levinson, in Analog, May 1997.

Advantage, Bellarmine

by Paul Levinson

“Advantage, Bellarmine” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1998.

Jeff Harris 2

Little Differences

by Paul Levinson

“Little Differences” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 1998.

Little Differences

by Paul Levinson

“Little Differences” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 1998.

Jeff Harris 3

Late Lessons

by Paul Levinson

“Late Lessons” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 1999.

Late Lessons

by Paul Levinson

“Late Lessons” by Paul Levinson, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 1999.

Borrowed Tides

by Paul Levinson

Borrowed Tides by Paul Levinson (Tor, March 2001).

The Chronology Protection Case

by Mark Shanahan et al.

An enjoyable script based on the short story of the same name.

But if you come across something you know to be true, one thing is certain: you can never go back to not knowing.

The Chronology Protection Case by Mark Shanahan et al. (Fall 2002).

The Chronology Protection Case

written and directed by Jay Kensinger

Stilted acting and hokey science, but still an enjoyable, low-budget adaptation of Paul Levinson’s story with a fine version of D’Amato.

— Michael Main

Everything is related to each other on some level, and people have discovered that the deeper you go, the more you find that totally different things are made of the same thing.

The Chronology Protection Case written and directed by Jay Kensinger (I-Con, Stony Brook, NY, 20 April 2002).

Sierra Waters 1

The Plot to Save Socrates

by Paul Levinson

Young doctoral student Sierra chases back to ancient Alexandria after her professor who seems to be chasing after a time traveler who is trying to get Socrates to abandon Athenian death row for the future.

Although I haven’t seen a second novel, a sequel novella called “Unburning Alexandria” featured Sierra chasing around 410 A.D. Alexandria.

If I, today, had finished constructing a device, in this room, which allowed you to travel even a day into the past, and you used it to travel into the past to kill or otherwise distract me from completing the device, how would you have been able to travel in the first place into the past, with no device then constructed?

The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson (Tor Books, February 2006).

Ian’s Ions and Eons

by Paul Levinson

In the first story (“Ian’s Ions and Eons”), a man travels back to December 2000, hoping to alter the momentous Supreme Court decision of that month.

Ian and his cohorts have a reprise in “Ian, Isaac and John” (Nov 2011), where a descendant of David Bowe comes back to 1975, purportedly to improve the mix on a Bowe track, but quite possibly with additional motives involving John Lennon. And there are more stories to come, all in Analog.

The Supreme Court will announce its decision the day after tomorrow. Gore’s people want the recount to proceed in Florida. Bush’s do not.

“Ian’s Ions and Eons” by Paul Levinson, in Analog, April 2011.