#paratime — Public Fediverse posts

I'm getting near the end of _The Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume 1_¹, and have just started "Paratime Paradox". This is a meta #ScienceFiction story that could go very dark, though I doubt John F. Carr will take it in that direction. #SciFi

The highest law of the Paratime Police, and First Level society in general, is to keep the Paratime Secret – the reality that other timelines exist, that people can travel between them, and that citizens of one line are exploiting other lines – safe from outsiders. In this tale, routine monitoring by the Bureau of Outtime Intelligence on the Europo-American Subsector has turned up a possible major leak. #AltHist

It seems that someone name H. Beam Piper is writing #paratime stories in _Astounding Science Fiction_ magazine. He's even using "Verkan Vall" and "Tortha Karf" as a characters, among other actual people's names. Piper tells about actual events that these people have been engaged in, like the capture of an escaped Venusian Nighthound. #crosstime

Given that it's not unusual for people who discover the Paratime Secret to be killed, and that in reality H. Beam Piper committed suicide in the mistaken belief he was a failure (his agent died, leaving Piper unaware he'd sold several stories), it's theoretically possible that Verkan might have to kill Piper to save the former's civilization. #AlternateHistory

Now, it's not likely that Carr will kill the author whose oeuvre has been the basis for half of his own stories, but at the start of the story, it's a possibility. #SFF

[1] Really should have epub-split this; will the next.