Ransom
- Eloi Silver Medal
- by Albert E. Cowdrey
- Novella
- Science Fiction
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- “Ransom” by Albert E. Cowdrey, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 2002.
Time travel agent Maks Hamilton is told by mysterious kidnappers that if he ever wants to see his own son again, he must travel back three centuries—just before the Troubles—to abduct another boy.
Despite the characters’ belief that they can change history, up in the ITTDB Citadel we all agreed that the characters are an unreliable source and this story actually lives in a carefully crafted single static timeline along with a nice bootstrap paradox.
Despite the characters’ belief that they can change history, up in the ITTDB Citadel we all agreed that the characters are an unreliable source and this story actually lives in a carefully crafted single static timeline along with a nice bootstrap paradox.
—Michael Main
I want you to bring someone from the past to the present—someone who would otherwise die only a few hours afterward. Surely that’s possible.
Tags
(8)
- Timeline Models
- Single Consistent Timeline: The characters are mistaken in thinking they can change history.
- Time Travel Methods
- Time Tethers: the wormholer, with the tethered return controled by the traveler’s handset
- Themes
- Bootstrap Paradox: Yamashita’s decision to send John Hammer back to the past plays a significant role in Yamashita’s own birth.
- Cannot Return to Where You Already Exist: —So two versions of me can’t coexist at the same time.
- Causal Loops: Yamashita sends John Hammer back to the past → John sires Yamashita’s ancestor → Yamashita is born →Yamashita sends John Hammer back to the past →. . .
- Time Corps: Pastplor
- Real-World Tags
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- “Ransom” by Albert E. Cowdrey, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 2002.