Palimpsest

Stross's Hugo Award–winning novella (first published in his 2009 collection, Wireless) is a detailed look at the Stasis, a time travel organization, and the training and subsequent career of Pierce, one of its recruits. Pierce's story is related in a series of short chapters that describe his missions as small parts of a much longer life. Similar in many ways to Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories, the novel demonstrates clear thinking about the possibilities that paradox introduces into time travel, as well as the theories of multiple universes. Pierce's actions as he moves through the time stream, inadvertently circling on his future self and the pasts of those he thinks he knows, allow him to discover more about himself—and about the Stasis—than the Stasis would like. Experienced SF readers will enjoy this intelligent look at the intricacies of time travel fiction. (Oct.)