Title Legions in Time Series --- Author Michael Swanwick Cover Art --- Publisher 2003 First Printing 2003 Category Science Fiction Warnings None Main Characters Eleanor Voigt, Mr. Tarbleko Main Elements Time Travel Website ---

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A surprisingly complex time travel tale in a Hugo Award winning novelette. We start with an older lady from the 1930's is working at a strange job. As she has to do all day is keep an eye on a closet, making sure no one goes in our out, and at noon, to open it up and check inside. She does this for over a year, and only twice has her boss, Mr. Tarbleko come and sent her away for forty minutes. Eventually his cruel treatment of her, and her curiosity, win out and she steps inside the closet, only to find herself in another time (how she knew it was a different time and not an alien planet or alternate dimension, I don't know).

I loved this first bit, it is what I enjoy in short story, where things are kind of normal, but kind of not.

Then things really start moving, and that's where short stories often struggle, since they are short, they can't spend a lot of time explaining things so it can get a bit annoying, but the gist of it is, Tableko is a kind of time conqueror, one year at a time his people work their way backwards, taking over and enslaving the inhabitants. There is of course a rebellion trying to stop them, people from all time periods, including future ones, and Eleanor gets sucked right into it. But she's a surprisingly strong woman, one who learnt after her husband's death that she can handle just about anything.

In fact, she may be far more than she realizes.

On the whole, I enjoyed it. Now I will need to track down A. E. Van Vogt's "Recruiting Station" which was the inspiration for this tale.