Piper, H. Beam, and John F. Carr. Paratime
Summary: Tales involving Verkan Vall and the Paratime Police, some more explicitly than others.
Allohistorical content is weak except in "He Walked around the Horses" and Lord Kalvan of
Otherwhen. The infinite parallel Earths of Paratime are classed in five "levels"
dependent on the success of the purported colonization of Earth by humanity (which arose on
Mars) approximately 75 thousand years ago. Our timeline is classed as Fourth Level since
colonization barely succeeded but all memory of it has been lost. The Paratime Police arose
in the First Level, in which colonization was highly successful.
Series note: A series of related stories by Piper collected in Paratime! or assembled into
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, plus later novels and additional stories by Carr. The
contents of the two books by Piper have been collected in the omnibus volume The Complete
Paratime. Works by Carr include a novel expansion of the short story "Time Crime" (as by
Piper and John F. Carr), the novel Paratime Trouble, and stories in the collection
The Paratime Police Chronicles. Carr and collaborators have also written and published
an extensive series of novel-length sequels to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.
Piper, H. Beam. Paratime!
Summary: Collection of "He Walked Around the Horses", "Police Operation", "Last Enemy", "Temple
Trouble", and the original "Time Crime". But except for "He Walked Around the Horses", the
parallel Earths described are mostly exotic locales and none have a recent and/or clear
divergence from ours.
Series note: A Paratime collection.
Comments: Copyright page states that the book title is Paratime! but the cover and title page
omit the exclamation mark.
Published: Ace 1981 (0441651690BUY), 1983 (0441651704BUY), and 1986 (0441651712BUY).
Published: Included in The Complete Paratime, Ace 2001 (0441008011BUY).
Piper, H. Beam, and John F. Carr. The Paratime Police Chronicles: Volume 1
Summary: Collection including Piper's "Police Operation", "Last Enemy", and "Temple Trouble"
plus Carr's "The Transtemporal Man", "Paratime Parasites", "Paratime Paradox", and "Back
from the Dead".
Series note: A Paratime collection.
Published: Pequod 2018 (0937912727BUY).
Piper, H. Beam. "He Walked Around the Horses"
Divergence: 1777 CE
What if: Burgoyne won at Saratoga, forestalling American independence and the Age of Revolution.
Summary: In 1809, Germans investigate a man claiming to be a British diplomat and carrying
documents regarding some fantastical French emperor named Napoleon.
Series note: A Paratime story.
Comments: The inclusion of this as a Paratime story is indirectly explained in
"Police Operation", q.v.
Published: In Astounding, April 1948; World of Wonder (ed. Fletcher Pratt), Twayne 1951;
Best SF 3 (ed. Edmund Crispin), Faber 1958, 1963, SFBC 1960; Aspects of Science
Fiction (ed. Geoff Doherty), Billings 1959, J. Murray 1963, and Billings 1970
(0719522153); Science Fiction Through the Ages 2 (ed. I.O. Evans), Panther 1966; A
Science Fiction Argosy (ed. Damon Knight), Simon & Schuster 1972 (0671211269), SFBC
1972; Space Mail (eds. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph Olander), Fawcett
1980; Paratime!, q.v.; Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Treasury
(eds. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph Olander), Bonanza 1980 (0517336359);
The Golden Age of Science Fiction (ed. Kingsley Amis), Hutchinson 1981; Penguin 1983;
Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories: 10 (1948) (eds. Isaac Asimov and Martin H.
Greenberg), DAW 1983; Alternative Histories: Eleven Stories of the World as
It Might Have Been (eds. Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg), q.v.; and The
Amis Story Anthology: A Personal Choice of Short Stories (ed. Kingsley Amis), Hutchinson
1992 (0099659506).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Alain Rague as "L'Homme qui apparut", in Histoire de la 4ègme
dimension (ed. unknown), Livre de Poche 1986 (2253032956).
Translation: German by Eva Malsch as "Er ging um die Pferde herum", in Sternenpost 3 (eds. Isaac
Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph H. Olander), Möwig 1984 (3811867350).
Translation: German by Lore Strassl as "Der Mann, der um die Pferde herumging", in
Schöne verkehrte Welt: Phantastische Geschichten zur Geschichte
(ed. René Oth), q.v.
Translation: Italian by Bruno Fonzi as "Passò intorno ai cavalli", in Le Meraviglie del
possibile. Antologia della fantascienza (eds. Sergio Solmi and Carlo Fruttero), Einaudi
1959; Le Meraviglie del possibile. Antologia della fantascienza 1 (eds. Sergio Solmi
and Carlo Fruttero), Einaudi 1992 (8806129341).
Translation: Italian by Giampaolo Cossato and Sandro Sandrelli as "Camminò intorno ai cavalli",
in Le grandi storie della fantascienza 10 (eds. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg),
S.I.A.D. 1984, Bompiani 1993 (8845220532).
Piper, H. Beam. "Police Operation"
Summary: Paracop Verkan Vall searches for an anomalous Venusian nighthound loose on Fourth-Level
Earth.
Series note: A Paratime story.
Published: In Astounding, July 1948; Space Police (eds. Andre Norton), Cleveland 1956;
The Best of Astounding (ed. Tony Lewis), Baronet 1978 (0894370243);
Paratime!, q.v.; and Analog: The Best of Science Fiction (ed.
anon.), A&W/Galahad 1985 (088365637X).
Original in: English.
Translation: German by Dolf Strasser as "Der venusische Würger", in SF-Stories 66 (ed.
Walter Spiegl), Ullstein 1977 (3548033237).
Piper, H. Beam. "Last Enemy"
Summary: Verkan Vall bails out a psychic researcher on a Second-Level timeline where
reincarnation is a proven fact.
Series note: A Paratime story.
Published: In Astounding, August 1950; Astounding SF Anthology (ed. John W. Campbell),
Simon & Schuster 1952; Paratime!, q.v.; and
Robert Adams' Book of Alternate Worlds, q.v. (eds. Robert Adams, Martin
H. Greenberg, and Pamela Crippen Adams).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Pierre Billon as "Le dernier ennemi", in Fiction, Special #6, Opta 1966.
Piper, H. Beam. "Temple Trouble"
Summary: Verkan Vall assists a paratime substation disguised as a temple.
Series note: A Paratime story.
Published: In Astounding, April 1951 and Paratime!, q.v.
Original in: English.
Translation: German by Bodo Baumann as "Machtkampf der Goetzen", in SF-Stories 5 (ed. Walter
Spiegl), Ullstein 1970 (3548028047).
Translation: German by Lore Strassl as "Tempelschwierigkeiten", in Das Zeitverbrechen, Pabel
1984 (3811850148).
Piper, H. Beam, and John F. Carr. Time Crime
Summary: Verkan Vall breaks up a crosstime slave ring.
Series note: A Paratime story.
Published: Pequod 2010 (0937912085BUY).
Published: Expanded from a novella by Piper in Astounding, February-March 1955 and
Paratime!, q.v.
Original in: English.
Translation: German of the original story by Bodo Baumann as "Sklaven der Zeit", in SF-Stories 6
(ed. Walter Spiegl), Ullstein 1971 (3548028187).
Translation: German of the original story by Lore Strassl as "Das Zeitverbrechen", in Das
Zeitverbrechen, Pabel 1984 (3811850148).
Piper, H. Beam. Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen [vt Gunpowder God]
Divergence: c 2000 BCE
What if: Bronze Age Indo-Aryans crossed the Bering Strait to colonize the Americas.
Summary: A Pennsylvania state trooper is transported to a North America where priests of Styphon
exert political control over a network of feudal kingdoms through their monopoly on gunpowder.
Series note: The only Lord Kalvan tale and full-length novel in the Paratime series written by
Piper. Several novel-length Lord Kalvan sequels have been written by John
F. Carr, Roland J. Green, and Wolfgang Diehr. A related gaming supplement by Mike Gilbert
titled Down Styphon! A Musket and Pike War Game Based on Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen was
published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1977.
Published: As Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Ace 1965, 1977 (0441490514), 1981 (0441490530), 1984
(0441490557BUY); Garland 1975 (082401420X).
Published: As Gunpowder God, Sphere 1978 (0722168772).
Published: Included in The Complete Paratime, Ace 2001 (0441008011BUY).
Published: Fix-up of 1) "Gunpowder God", in Analog, November 1964; Time Wars (eds. Charles
G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg), Tor 1986 (0812530489, 0812530497), The Good Old
Stuff (ed. Gardner Dozois), Griffin 1998 (0312192754); and 2) "Down Styphon", in
Analog, November 1965; Robert Adams' Book of Soldiers (eds. Robert Adams, Pamela
Crippen Adams and Martin H. Greenberg), Signet 1988 (0451155599).
Original in: English.
Translation: French by Michel Deutsch as Kalvan d'outre-temps, Opta 1972.
Translation: German by Helmut Bittner as Der Mann, der die Zeit betrog, Winther 1967.
Translation: Italian by Cesare Gavioli as Lord Kalvan di Altroquando, La Tribuna 1968.
Translation: Italian by Roberta Rambelli as Lord Kalvan d'Altroquando, Libra 1979.
Carr, John F. Paratime Trouble
Summary: A Paratime story set in something like our early 1960s.
Series note: A Paratime novel.
Published: Pequod 2017 (0937912719BUY).
Piper, H. Beam. The Complete Paratime
Summary: Omnibus volume including all of the stories from Paratime! and the novel Lord
Kalvan of Otherwhen.
Series note: A Paratime collection.
Published: Ace 2001 (0441008011BUY).
Uchronia is copyright © 1991-2024 Robert B. Schmunk