Operation Time Search by Andre Norton

[james_davis_nicoll]

Operation Time Search by Andre Norton

Comments

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

I'd go with "continents transported to modern world", because if they had continued to exist in the past there would have been a paradox: there is some sort of cosmic compensation principle that prevents such things by shoving temporal anomalies ahead in time past the point where the time stream was screwed up, which is to say right after Osborne travels back in time. Sort of like the situation in "A Gun For Dinosaur", but with much wider effects.

And I suppose the effects will differ depending on whether the new continents _replace_ the area of sea they end up in or _displace_ it: in the second case definite mega-tsunamis (plus a permanent and possibly massive rise in sea level), while in the first case you probably get only _moderately_ huge Tsunamis as the ocean floor crust adjusts to all that extra weight. (Or some other process: the Earth's crust may be rather different in this reality).

[scentofviolets.livejournal.com]

Too what degree are the processes of continental formation and continental drift chaotic? Not that this solves the problem of where the recognizable humans come from . . . I like alternate history as much as anyone else, but I'd say it's explanatory power in stories like thses is magical.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Ah, the era when SF publishers ordered pseudo-abstract cover art by the gross and then attached it to books at random.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm nostalgic for the good old days when you could tell a science fiction novel by the fact that there were no spaceships on the cover.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

The figure in the foreground is searching for time! It's right behind him—time is green and swirly—but he can't see it through all the bowling pins, which I assume are an integral part of Atlantean technology.

ETA: this means this cover also works for Proust.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

No, the bowling pins are Atlanteans, their bowling-pin form symbolizing their interchangeability and impending bowling over by the hero.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

A striking cover. I'll spare you further comment.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I remember this book well. I owned a copy in my youth and read it many times. Sure, it has huge plot problems, but what would SF adventure porn be without them?

[the_rck]

I haven't reread this one in more than twenty years, but I remember being really fond of it. I think that may be because it was the first Norton novel I actually bought and could read whenever I wanted to.

I always chose to ignore the bit about the new continents appearing suddenly in the modern day because it struck me as stupid.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I always chose to ignore the bit about the new continents appearing suddenly in the modern day because it struck me as stupid.

Pretty much. I've read that novel several times and enjoyed it, but that bit makes no sense at all. An alternate ending where Mu & Atlantis had always existed and the present was noticably (and likely vastly) different would have been considerably harder and likely used up too much page count, but would have been vastly better.

[tandw.livejournal.com]

Likewise--I think I read it when I was eleven or twelve, and even then there was a certain amount of WTF?! when I got to that part. The monster that was going to eat the main character at the end creeped me out, I must say.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

This was one of my first Nortons, also found in a school library (I honestly am not sure which one but am guessing middle school). I remember it fondly in an extremely vague impressionistic way. Also thought the ending problematic; it is (along with "guy accidentally winds up in Atlantis") the main thing I remember about it.