Times without Number

I first encountered John Brunner in his short story In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells in the anthology After the King. After enjoying that tale, I picked up a few novels by him in my last used book store trip, including Times without Number.

The book is a collection of three stories originally published in three consecutive issues of the British magazine Science Fiction Adventures in 1962, collected into a novel the same year, revised by Brunner in 1969. The copy I read is the 1969 revision.

It's an alternate history book, set in a 1989 where the Spanish Armada conquered England, paving the way for an empire spanning the whole of the western hemisphere. While conventional technology is at a severely lower level than our timeline, there have been major advancements in one area- time travel, controlled by a government-supported Society of Time. All three stories (really sections) deal with a young junior officer in this order, Dom Miguel Navarro, and his gradual (although spotty) understanding of the workings of time.

While a very enjoyable read, especially the middle section, the chief interest for me was the ideas contained in it. Brunner is really good at writing historical background and making it very organic and accurate, it felt like something that could have happened, even the time travel, at least the idea. There is one slight issue: as is made clear in the end, there can only be one actual timeline- alternate worlds don't stretch to infinity in this book- however, in part 2 people pass through a time machine into this reality from an alternate one. This can be explained by the inexperience of Dom Miguel, he still hasn't learned the innermost secrets of the Society, but a bit of explanation from a higher-ranking member would have been welcome.

Still, I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely be reading more by the author.