A review by ponch22
Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1941 by Paul A. Carter, Frank Kramer, Kolliker, Theodore Sturgeon, L. Sprague de Camp, Winston K. Marks, Hubert Rogers, Isaac Asimov, Anson MacDonald, P. Schuyler Miller, John W. Campbell Jr., Paul Orban, Robert A. Heinlein, E. Everett Evans
5.0
I decided to read this short story after reading [a:Robert A. Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]'s (much shorter story) [b:"'—All You Zombies—'"|13030110|All You Zombies|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1338513108s/13030110.jpg|18193411] and enjoying it. [b:By His Bootstraps|13101981|By His Bootstraps|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1322105304s/13101981.jpg|17438523] is another great story exploring the paradoxes of time travel.
It opens with a young grad student, Bob Wilson, trying desperately to write his entire thesis in under 48 hours. Fueled by little more than coffee, cigarettes, and gin, he's completely oblivious to the man who has appeared in his (locked) dorm room.
It turns out the stranger claims to be a time traveler and a wonderfully complex (yet beautifully simple) story unfolds in the only way it really can. I found a PDF online (scanned pages out of Heinlein's collection [b:The Menace From Earth|50837|The Menace from Earth (Future History, #18)|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391040335s/50837.jpg|1995884]) and read it in probably an hour, so I don't want to get too deep into the plot because it's so easy for you to find and read (and, as with any time travel story, the less you know about it the better) but it was brilliant.
Once you stop to think about all the who's and when's and how's, it may fall apart, but that's exactly the point. As a short story, there was really no time to think about these mid-read; there was only time to sit back and enjoy the journey. After all, as Bob says as he starts his time travelling, "Paradoxes don't worry me."
It opens with a young grad student, Bob Wilson, trying desperately to write his entire thesis in under 48 hours. Fueled by little more than coffee, cigarettes, and gin, he's completely oblivious to the man who has appeared in his (locked) dorm room.
It turns out the stranger claims to be a time traveler and a wonderfully complex (yet beautifully simple) story unfolds in the only way it really can. I found a PDF online (scanned pages out of Heinlein's collection [b:The Menace From Earth|50837|The Menace from Earth (Future History, #18)|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391040335s/50837.jpg|1995884]) and read it in probably an hour, so I don't want to get too deep into the plot because it's so easy for you to find and read (and, as with any time travel story, the less you know about it the better) but it was brilliant.
Once you stop to think about all the who's and when's and how's, it may fall apart, but that's exactly the point. As a short story, there was really no time to think about these mid-read; there was only time to sit back and enjoy the journey. After all, as Bob says as he starts his time travelling, "Paradoxes don't worry me."