Publisher's Synopsis
Paratime was one of H. Beam Piper's most inspired creations and this collection contains all three of John F. Carr's Paratime Police novelettes featuring Lord Kalvan: "Kalvan Kingmaker," "Siege at Tarr-Hostigos" and the never before published "Sea of Grass," a new story about the infiltration of Kalvan's Time-Line by the Wizard Traders. Another new story, "The Alexander Affair," tells the tale of what happens when an ambitious Paratimer decides to raise his con game to a new level-godhood! And, finally, "Paratime War: " the story that answers the questions raised in Kalvan novels Gunpowder God and Down Styphon! why Verkan Vall, the Paratime Police and the Kalvan Study Teams suddenly disappeared from Kalvan's Time Line. In Paratime War the Home Time Line civilization faces its greatest threat since the Mystic Wars! Will 10,000 years of civilization come to an end due to the evil machinations of a madman and his henchmen? This is one collection that you do not want to miss.
H. Beam Piper's Paratime stories concern the Home Time-Line on First Level, an advanced civilization based on the outcome of Martian colonization of the Earth some 75,000 years ago. The five Paratime levels met with vastly different outcomes, ranging from the highly-civilized Paratimers on First Level, where colonization was successful, to Fifth Level-the probability of the complete failure of Martian colonization where no human population was established and only indigenous quasi-human life evolved on Earth. For over 12,000 years the people of First Level have been using temporal transposition travel to loot and steal from the innumerable other worlds of alternate probability on the lateral dimension of time. Smart parasites never injure their hosts, nor do they reveal their existence. It's up to the Paratime Police to guard the Paratime Secret and their outtime activities, as well as hunt down and prosecute First Level criminals and illegal syndicates.
