There Will Be Time (Signet SF, Q5401)

Jack Havig was born in 1933 with the ability to time travel. The story of his life is relayed to the reader via Robert Anderson, his childhood doctor and protector. Havig is subjected to a rough family life — his father dies in WWII and his step-father, not inherently a bad man but rather the wrong father figure for Havig, is a religious, right-wing, reverent pro-McCarthy anti-Communist whose expectations for his step son revolve around farming. Robert Anderson and his wife Katie protect him from the step-father as best as they can. Soon, Jack realizes that he has a special gift — a gift that allowed him to escape from bullies, a gift that gave him terrible premonitions of his father’s death…

Soon, Jack vanishes without a trace. When he returns, he relates to Robert the many years he spent in California at Berkley with the student movements and other radicals. Here Anderson’s rather centrist politics emerge for Havig does not find their idealism inspiring. Havig does convince Robert of his time-traveling ability. Additional meetings between the two friends, as Jack journeys from time to time and place to place, provides the reader a glimpse into the events of Havig’s life. The time compression, a few months might pass in Robert’s life while Havig might spend years at a certain moment of time in history, allows the reader to see how Havig comes to terms with his gift and mature as a person.

The more traditional SF narrative emerges when Jack learns of an apocalypse that will strike most of the world, as a result of ecological disasters and nuclear war, that will occur in the 21st century. And after this disaster, Jack learns of the new power in the world — the the Maurai Federation (comprised of peoples from New Zealand and Micronesia) — that rules a less industrialized and more ecologically regulated Earth.

Havig’s second great revelation is the presence of numerous other time travelers from all time periods. A racist and dictatorial time traveler from the 19th century named Wallis has gathered them all together in an effort to lay the groundwork for a society to challenge the Maurai Federation whom he deems to be “Kanaka-white-nigger-Chink-Jap mongrels” (71). Initially Havig, desiring to live with others with his ability, joins in with Wallis but soon learns of the extent of Wallis’ plan. . .
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https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2013/08/16/book-review-there-will-be-time-poul-anderson-1972/
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[About the Author]: [Pseudonyms] A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley....
"Poul Anderson (1926-2001) grew up bilingual in a Danish American family. After discovering science fiction fandom and earning a physics degree at the University of Minnesota, he found writing science fiction more satisfactory. Admired for his ""hard"" science fiction, mysteries, historical novels, and ""fantasy with rivets,"" he also excelled in humor. He was the guest of honor at the 1959 World Science Fiction Convention and at many similar events, including the 1998 Contact Japan 3 and the 1999 Strannik Conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Besides winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, he has received the Gandalf, Seiun, and Strannik, or ""Wanderer,"" Awards. A founder of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers oAf America, he became a Grand Master, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 1952 he met Karen Kruse; they married in Berkeley, California, where their daughter, Astrid, was born, and they later lived in Orinda, California. Astrid and her husband, science fiction author Greg Bear, now live with their family outside Seattle."

Aventura / Drama / Ficção científica / História / História Geral / Literatura Estrangeira / Romance / Suspense e Mistério