Rivers of Time

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Rivers of Time

First edition of Rivers of Time
Author L. Sprague de Camp
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction short stories
Publisher Baen Books
Publication date 1993
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 258 pp
ISBN ISBN 067172195X

Rivers of Time is a 1993 collection of short stories by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in paperback by Baen Books. All but two of the pieces were originally published between 1956 and 1993 in the magazines Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog, and Asimov's Science Fiction, and the Robert Silverberg-edited anthology The Ultimate Dinosaur. The remaining pieces were first published in the present work.

The book collects the author's nine tales of time-traveling hunter Reginald Rivers, the hero of his 1956 classic, "A Gun for Dinosaur". He wrote another Rivers story in 1990 to fulfil a request by Robert Silverberg for a dinosaur story for his 1991 anthology The Ultimate Dinosaur; afterwards, de Camp added to the sequence until he had enough stories for a book.

The Rivers stories take the form of first-person narratives by the protagonist told to companions whose identities vary, but who have in common the fact that their contributions to the conversation are omitted, and must be inferred from those of Rivers. Every story is an anecdote from Rivers' career as a conductor of time safaris to previous eras, both to hunt prehistoric creatures and for scientific purposes (and, occasionally, anti-scientific purposes). In addition to Rivers, the main recurring characters include fellow members of his safari firm, including his partner Chandra Aiyar, camp boss Beauregard Black, and cook Ming. In most instances, the actions of their human clients prove more troublesome than those of the extinct fauna, a theme set in "Faunas", a 1968 poem by de Camp that precedes the stories. An afterword by the author tells how he came to write the series.

Contents

[edit] Contents

  • "Faunas" (poem)
  • "A Gun for Dinosaur"
  • "The Cayuse"
  • "Crocamander Quest"
  • "Miocene Romance"
  • "The Synthetic Barbarian"
  • "The Satanic Illusion"
  • "The Big Splash"
  • "The Mislaid Mastodon"
  • "The Honeymoon Dragon"
  • "Afterword"

[edit] Species Featured in the Series

Tyrannosaurs of the species Gorgosaurus are mentioned occasionally, and many times Reginal Rivers will say that the Raja is out in some period in the Cenozoic, taking a group to hunt some form of prehistoric mammal (sometimes titanothere, entelodont, or uintathere).

[edit] Inaccuracies in Rivers of Time

Rivers of Time is a well written time travel series, but the paleontology at the time of its writing is a lot different than what we know about the ancient world now. Some mistakes in the writing include...

  • Alamosaurus and all other sauropods were not aquatic creatures, forced to stay in the water most of the time
  • Troodon is portrayed as a pachycephalosaurid in the story, while in reality is was a raptor like theropod (note, all postcranial remains of Troodon at this time were called Stenonychosaurus)
  • Gorgosaurus is said to be another type of carnivore, it was a tyrannosaur
  • Tyrannosaurus only appeared in the last five to seven million years of the Cretaceous, not in the middle of the period
  • None of the species in "A Gun for a Dinosaur" lived in the Middle Cretaceous. Instead, you see species such as Nothronychus, Pawpawsaurus, Protohadros, and Zuniceratops.
  • The teratosaur in the book is portrayed as a carnosaur. Current thinking suggests that most of the Late Triassic 'carnosaurs' (with the exception of Liliensternus, Dilophosaurus, and their kin) are actually rauisuchians.


[edit] Sequel

A tenth story of Reginald Rivers, "Gun, Not for Dinosaur", authored by Chris Bunch, appeared in Harry Turtledove's 2005 tribute anthology honoring L. Sprague de Camp, The Enchanter Completed.

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