L. Sprague de Camp
Rivers of Time
Simon and Schuster, New York 1993
ISBN 0-671-72195-X
Monika says:
Reginald Rivers runs an unusual travel agency. He owns a time machine
and offers his customers a special service: travels to the past. Those who
can afford it take hunting trips to the Cretaceous and Jurassic period
when the biggest land animals ever roamed this planet. The heads of the
big predators are especially sought after as trophies, but not only big
game hunters are among the time travelers but also some rather eccentric
fellows who make sure that Reggie Rivers and his companion, the Raja,
never get bored.
He gets lots of bad publicity when once more an imprudent guest ends up
on the dinner table of some primeval beast, like the clergyman who made
the journey with his colleagues to prove that evolution is one big hoax
and Earth actually is 6000 years old, just as Bishop Ussher once claimed
to have found out. Just as bad was the trip with the two scientists eager
to witness the impact of the meteorite that ended the Age of Dinosaurs 65
million years ago. Apart from that Reggie always has to make sure that no
period of time is visited twice in order not to cause a paradox. A change
in history with consequences for the present would catapult the travelers
back to their own times immediately and leave only shreds of them.
RIVERS OF TIME is a great read for everybody who dreams of visiting our
distant past and seeing prehistoric animals in flesh and blood. It’s fun
to see what can happen when so-called civilized people collide with an
"uncivilized" world. The book is a collection of short stories
about the adventures of a troubled travel agent of the future with his
sometimes very eccentric customers. Reasons to make a journey to the past
are manifold: love of adventure, curiosity, the conviction that the
animals meant to be their prey are already extinct and therefore the
hunters aren’t pestered by conservationists when they shoot as many as
their hearts desire. The descriptions of the fauna are vivid and fire the
imagination, but the best thing about the book is the author’s eccentric
sense of humor. In spite of all their high tech gadgets the "Pride of
Creation" has a hard time surviving in the wilderness. Some people
just don’t want to see that it’s not enough to have a big brain if you
don’t know how to use it.
Good science fiction doesn’t always need strange planets and alien
civilizations. This book is proof that our good old Earth serves just as
well. |
