Review: Is Time Ever Enough?

There Will Be Time
Poul Anderson
176 pp.
Signet 1973
ISBN 0-451-15412-6

"What was the good of time travel, ever?

These are the words of Jack Havig, the main character of Poul Anderson's sci-fi classic There Will Time.  It's a sweeping adventure packed with thought provoking commentary on the value of time and the complexity of the human experience.

The story begins with Havig's recounting his life as told by his longtime confident and physician, Dr. Robert Anderson. As the story unfolds from Havig's first disappearing act as a baby ("He vanished. In midair..." his mother exclaims) to his travels to the future and witnessing his father's untimely death, Havig travels up and down time building a mass of experiences, skills, wealth, and even fallling in love. Then one experience changes his life forever: a chance meeting with fellow time travelers. Havig becomes engulfed in the society of the Maurai, a group of intergenerational and international travelers working to build a new civilization under the leadership of Caleb Wallis, a racist classist who justifies his thievery and subjugation of non-time travelers (whom he calls "commoners"). When a mission is set in motion that Havig does not agree with, his disappearance through time costs him greatly. Searching through time for Wallis and all involved, Havig plots his vengeance with the help of his friend and lover, Leonce.

There Will Be Time is a great story about the value of learning from our pasts and preparing for our futures. Although the pacing was uneven, the intrigue of time travel is consistently powerful, oftentimes reading like a scene from a popular sci-fi film like Star Wars. Light on adventure and heavy on ruminations that were sometimes unnecessary, the narrative is still a fun summer reader that will keep you reeling.

Join me June 11 for my ruminations on the next selection: Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Can't wait to hear what you think.