The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories

A collection of classic novellas from 1960s-70s Science Fiction writer John Brunner, which have previously only been collected in abridged versions. Brunner's novellas focus on stories of alternate dimensions and different realities, an increasingly popular topic of television and film.

A handful of John Brunner’s novels are still in print and remain popular, but these novellas – some of his finest work – have been confined to the pages of rare literary magazines: until now.

‘A picture was coming to him now. He could visualise the path of history in each of those innumerable potential worlds where man had gained the power of time-travel as a series of loops. Every loop was like a knife; it severed the chain of causation and created a new reality.’

Drifting through a party celebrating 400 years since the Spanish Armada’s successful invasion of Britain, Don Miguel Navarro – Licentiate of the Society of Time – is shaken by the host’s possession of a flawless mask from an ancient Aztec festival. ‘Imported’ from the past, the discovery signals a breach in the Society’s policing of time-travel, and imminent danger to reality itself. Today, a relic out of time; tomorrow, the rewriting of the course of history? In three ground-breaking novellas, John Brunner weaves an ingenious tale of diverging timelines and a battle for dominance over the fourth dimension.

The Society of Time stories were abridged when first collected. Here, the trilogy is reprinted in full with two mesmerising standalone novellas: ‘The Analysts’ and ‘Father of Lies’.
CONTENTS
1. Spoil of Yesterday • (Science Fiction Adventures, marzec 1962, #25) • novelette [The Society of Time #1]
2. The Word Not Written • (Science Fiction Adventures, maj 1962, #26) • novelette [The Society of Time #2]
3. The Fullness of Time • (Science Fiction Adventures, lipiec 1962, #27) • novelette [The Society of Time #3]
4. Father of Lies • (Science Fantasy, kwiecień 1962; Belmont Double 1968 ) • novella
5. The Analysts • (Science Fantasy, sierpień 1961) • novelette
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Times Without Number (3 linked stories abridged) - first published 1962 by Ace Double; revised and expanded 1969, revised and expanded 1974
The collection of 2020 - selected, edited and introduced by Mike Ashley