Time Patrolman

About this book

Time travelers want to change past history in this speculative novel by one of the great writers in this genre. Also use: Twilight World (1983). REVIEW Sometimes, I find that a book can be a welcome surprise because the blurb on the back doesn’t nearly do justice explaining the story within, and I wonder why they couldn’t have spent a little more time to accurately describe its awesomeness to move more copies and assist in enlightening the world. Time Patrolman wisely avoids that dread failure, but unfortunately veers into rocky territory by having a synopsis which left me completely perplexed. This summary promises a story of a member of the Time Patrol named Odin the Goth, who suffers the tragedy of loving a woman in the epoch he is assigned to protect, but is unable to rescue her from the terrible fate he knows she is destined for, due to his sworn duty to keep the events of the past inviolate. This seems pretty simple, but just you wait. Also complicating matters is the fact I’m a Time Patrolman myself, currently on vacation in October 2009, but next week I’ll be going back in time to this previous May, at which time I shall read this book, and also to tie up some loose ends from a previous assignment gone wrong. When I get about a quarter of the way through this book, I’ll wonder if the wrong cover had been put on my copy, sure the story will involve a Time Patrolman, but his name is going to be Manse Everard, and he’s going to be stationed in Phoenicia circa 950BC (where/when Goth activity is obviously minimal), and instead of being involved in a juicy love affair tempting his loyalty to the Patrol, he’ll relentless pursue Merau Varagan, a power-obsessed bandit hell-bent on changing the course of history for his own destructive purposes, in this case, to attack Jewish history at its nexus in Tyre. This doesn’t mean that the story which I will actually get won’t progress decently or hold my interest, it’ll just be vastly different than my expectations, which I think is understandable in these circumstances. This switcheroo may initially do a disservice to my opinion of the book as there’s only one parallel I’m going to make with this shady bait-and-switch, and it’s a painful memory (it still is now and will be then). The little lady and I were purchasing some porn videos, and she wisely opted for “Jail Whores” (which delivered in accordance to its simple, but honest, title) whereas I went with “Brunette Cocksuckers Gone Wild”, which was so low-budget that the studio ran out of brunettes by the third scene and began tossing blondes and other undesirables into the mix. As both a proud grown-up and staunch optimist, I can cope with these sorts of disappointments and find the silver lining hiding somewhere on this cloud; it still contained a stunning variety of fellatio, so all wasn’t completely for naught. I shall eventually say the same for the illustrious Poul Andersen’s Time Patrolman , sure, it won’t be quite what I’ll want, but it will still include time-travel and a badass who’ll guard the continuity of the past while beset by devastating misfortunes. My biggest surprise will be the revelation that this plot will start seeming more promising than the sappy-sounding shit initially offered, plus, I either have or will read Ken Grimwood’s Replay (can’t recall which) and still don’t see the need for anything challenging that as my favorite time-travel/heartbreaking-romance. Befuddled beyond belief, I’ll soon be taken for another dizzying turn; Time Patrolman will surprisingly contain two stories (the book won’t mention this fact anywhere, and it’s going to wallop me square in the testes with sledgehammer force), the second of which will involve the saga of love-stricken Odin the Goth. I’m going to hoot a few times in merriment upon discovering this, despite the staggering blow recently delivered to my aching nads, before silently giving Poul Andersen mad props for being a crafty cur. The coupling of these two stories is go

Author

Poul Anderson

Length

~243 pages

Reading time

4 h 50 min

Chapters

2

Released

November 11, 2026

Languages

🇬🇧 EN · 🇵🇱 PL · 🇩🇪 DE · 🇫🇷 FR · 🇪🇸 ES · 🇮🇹 IT · 🇧🇷 PT-BR · 🇲🇽 ES-MX · 🇵🇹 PT · 🇺🇦 UK · 🇨🇿 CS · 🇸🇰 SK · 🇬🇷 EL · 🇭🇺 HU · 🇹🇷 TR · 🇳🇱 NL · 🇷🇴 RO · 🇧🇬 BG · 🇭🇷 HR · 🇷🇸 SR · 🇸🇮 SL · 🇱🇹 LT · 🇱🇻 LV · 🇪🇪 ET · 🇸🇪 SV · 🇩🇰 DA · 🇳🇴 NB · 🇫🇮 FI · 🇯🇵 JA · 🇰🇷 KO · 🇨🇳 ZH · 🇹🇼 ZH-TW · 🇮🇩 ID · 🇻🇳 VI · 🇹🇭 TH · 🇮🇳 HI · 🇸🇦 AR · 🇮🇱 HE

Formats

eBook

Print format

Paperback, 13.5 × 21 cm, 304 pages

ISBN

9780812530766

Age rating

Teen 13+