James Nicoll Reviews

Andrew M. Stephenson’s 1979 The Wall of Years is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

In 2011, the Commissariat of National Integrity launched Project Damocles to protect the British Republics¹ from the deleterious effects of time travel, specifically the possibility that events in nearby timelines could affect the home timeline. This is a serious concern given that neighboring timelines were marching to a final War. The simple answer: murder every outside analog of time travel’s inventor, Frobisher. With no outside time travel available, existence would remain local causality for local people.

The CNI’s models were flawed. Their actions set off a series of time storms. End result: the Earth was reduced to a nearly lifeless, radioactive wasteland². Humanity perished… at least in 2011.

The 26^th century is another matter entirely.

A lucky two million fled forward through time to the City, protected by a dome from the hellscape Earth had become. Pausing only to condemn and execute every CNI member they could locate, the City’s people set about preserving society, while gradually terraforming the ruined Earth.

26^th century Earth lacks resources. Luckily, the same time travel technology that saved the two million from the time storms allowed the City to acquire the resources necessary from the past. As survival depended on doing this, the City’s administration found it easy to convince themselves that they knew how to do this safely.

A generation later, researcher Turlough Rhys solves Frobisher’s seventh equation. To his alarm, he discovers that the City has deluded itself, that to go on as it has is to ensure another calamity. An alternate method is possible. To use it, the City will need to calibrate its time machines more precisely than they have in the past.

Jerlan Nilssen is dispatched to the 9^th century court of King Alfred. His mission, to conceal in barrows known to have survived until the 26^th century certain time measuring mechanisms. The mission does not go at all smoothly—Jerlan is waylaid and murdered, surviving only due to a previously undiscovered quirk of time travel—but the City obtains the information it needs.

In the course of the survey mission, Jerlan encounters Morwena, a voiceless Saxon woman. Morwena not only recognizes Jerlan, she communicates using a 21^st century sign language no 9^th century Saxon should know. Clearly, Jerlan will in another timeline revisit the 9^th century, encounter Morwena, and teach her sign language. The question is why.

The answer seems to be to protect history. Not every CNI functionary was caught and executed. The CNI’s top administrator, Middlesex, eluded justice. Others may have as well. During his adventures in the 9^th century, Jerlan saw evidence of undocumented 26^th century activity. Might CNI agents be up to something untoward in the past?

Nothing for it but to send Jerlan and a companion, Yaer, back to the 9^th century. Posing as Arabs, they will infiltrate Alfred’s court to look for a CNI ringer posing as a Saxon.

Or the ringer will spot them for the spies they are and take steps to neutralize them.

~oOo~

The UK edition got a full wrap-around cover.

Do people want Women in Fridges warnings? If so, this novel needs one. The fridged woman is not Morwena, although I suppose since she’s a 9^th century Saxon, the odds that she survived to the 26^th century are poor.

I selected The Wall of Years for review because I mentioned it in Friday’s review. As the novel is beyond obscure, readers might want an explanation.

Along with some shorter material, Andrew M. Stephenson wrote two science fiction novels. Nightwatch was one. The Wall of Years (which I find myself misremembering as The Wall of Time) was the other. For reasons unknown, he stopped publishing novels.

Perhaps critical obscurity and lack of sales were to blame. Looking at the ISFDB entry for this novel, I see only three reviews, none appearing in venues such as Analog, F&SF, or Galaxy. While I grant that Ontario book distribution was spotty back in 1980, I remember having been surprised when I found a copy in the Bakka bookstore, as I had no idea Stephenson had published a second novel.

While the time travel model in play seems a bit counter-intuitive³, the plot depends on the fact that time travel and its effects are far more complex than expected. Suspension of disbelief preserved.

A significant portion of the plot is driven by the fact that even when species survival is on the line, people are swayed by their personal agendas. Yes, nobody wants to see humans become even more extinct in the home timeline. At the same time, senior functionaries didn’t get where they are by excessively prioritizing the common good over career goals. It’s probably a good thing there are other timelines far from the home line.

Much of the novel is what you might get if Len Deighton were to write an espionage novel set in Alfred’s court. Perhaps there are one or two too many twists and reveals for readability, but otherwise the cat and mouse game in Alfred’s court is nicely done. The Wall of Years is a competent novel⁴.

I’ve always been a bit sad that there were not more novels from this author. Hence I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Stephenson did publish a comparatively recent graphic novel in 2005: Waterloo Sunset. I will have to hunt that down.

The Wall of Years is very much out of print.

1: We don’t get an explanation as to how the United Kingdom became the British Republics or why the officer titles are suspiciously Soviet sounding. For that matter, there is no assurance that the 2011 depicted herein was supposed to be our future. There are, after all, many universes.

While we are at it, I assume that the 26^th century was selected as the safest time to which large numbers of people could be delivered.

2: A rather excessive solution for USA delenda est.

3: There don’t seem to be branching timelines, but rather many universes, some of which resemble each other closely, perhaps because adjacent universes can affect each other.

Although much of the plot focuses on an attempt to alter history, evidence points strongly against being able to make meaningful changes. The sticking point is the same phenomenon that caused the home line to suffer the effects of the War without having had a War. If universes diverge too much from the adjacent lines, the history they should have had overwrites the history that they did have.

4: Although not a competent little novel because it’s 451 pages of fine print. Rather long by the standards of the long long ago.