Pon Ruiter

translator
Short Story

The Twonky

A man, dazed from running into a temporal snag, appears in a radio factory, whereupon (before returning to his own time) he makes a radio that’s actually a Twonky, which promptly gets shipped to a Mr. Kerry Westerfield, who is initially quite confounded and amazed at everything it does.

Because of the story’s opening, I’m convinced the Twonky is from the future. The “temporal snag” that brought it to 1942 feels like an unexpected time rift to me, although the route back to the future is an intentional journey via an unexplained method. —Michael Main
“Great Snell!” he gasped. “So that was it! I ran into a temporal snag!”
Thin arms emerge from a console radio to light a man
  • 1943 Retro Hugo
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Rescue Party

Only a smidgen of unimportant time phenomena in the first paragraph of this ominous first contact story. —Michael Main
But Alveron and his kind had been lords of the Universe since the dawn of history, since that far distant age when the Time Barrier had been folded round the cosmos by the unknown powers that lay beyond the Beginning.
Pen-and-ink drawing of a military tank with wings.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

Nice Girl with 5 Husbands

On an artist retreat, a man gets blown 100 years into the future where, among other things, group marriage and group parenting are the norm. —Michael Main
“Who are you talking about?”

“My husbands.” She shook her head dolefully. “To find five more difficult men would be positively Martian.”
A slightly abstract black-and-white drawing of a the back of a black man facing a lighted woman coming out of the dark with a balancing rock formation in the background.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel