Classified Ad: Adventurers Wanted

Tag Area: Time Travel Trope
Novel

Marooned in 1492, or Under Fortune’s Flag

  • by W. W. Cook
  • serialized in Argosy, August to December 1905
Two adventurers, Trenwyck and Blinkers, answer a strange ad and eventually find themselves stranded in 1492 without enough of the time-travel corn for the entire party to return, so they send Columbus into the future to procure more of the precious kernels.

Fantasy or science fiction? Nothing particularly scientific about the time travel method, but the presentation of the want ad for a party of courageous men convinced us to tag Cook’s yarn as both sf and fantasy. —Michael Main
Wanted—A party of courageous men, experts in the various trades, to accompany a philanthropic gentleman on a mission of enlightenment to the Middle Ages. Single men only. References exchanged. An opportunity offers to construct anew the history of several benighted nations. If interested, call or write. Percival Tapscott, No. 198 Forty-Third Street.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Paycheck

Apparently, Jennings agreed to work as a specialized mechanic for two years at Rethrick Construction, having his memory wiped at the end in return for 50,000 credits—except instead of a bag full of credits, the memory-wiped Jennings is left holding a bag of seven trinkets and no idea why he would have agreed to such a thing. —Michael Main
But the big puzzle: how had he—his earlier self—known that a piece of wire and a bus token would save his life? He had known, all right. Known in advance. But how? And the other five. Probably they were just as precious, or would be.
Black-and-white pointillism illustration of two policemen running down a street with skyscrapers on the horizon.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Time Patrol 1

Time Patrol

In the first of a long series of hallowed stories, former military engineer (and noncomformist) Manse Everard is recruited by the Time Patrol to prevent time travelers from making major changes to history. (Don’t worry, history bounces back from the small stuff.) —Michael Main
If you went back to, I would guess, 1946, and worked to prevent your parents’ marriage in 1947, you would still have existed in that year; you would not go out of existence just because you had influenced events. The same would apply even if you had only been in 1946 one microsecond before shooting the man who would otherwise have become your father.
A man climbs a spiraling ramp up the side of a rocket while holding a blaster on two men below.
  • Eloi Bronze Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Lem’s Star Diaries

Czarna komnata profesora Tarantogi

  • Professor Tarantoga's black room
  • by Stanisław Lem
  • in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963) [Published as a TV script (“widowisko telewizyjne”) the year before the 1964 Polish TV broadcast.]
Professor Tarantoga saves human civilization! After using his chronopad to investigate the leading scientists and artists in history, Tarantoga concludes that without exception they are lazy drunkards. So naturally, he sends smart young people into various eras to invent differential calculus, to paint the Mona Lisa, etc.—all while a pair of police inspectors have their eye on him. —based on Wikipedia
A pencil sketch of an odd bird standing on the head of a dog-like robot with a full moon in the sky.
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Mystery and Crime
  • Definite Time Travel
Nonfiction Audio

Safety Not Guaranteed

  • by John Silveira
  • in Backwoods Home Magazine, September/October 1997
Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me.
This is not a joke.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Definite Time Travel