Time Patrol

This contains ten separate stories about the Time Patrol, of varying lengths, first published across a span of 40 years, from 1955 to 1995. I've been rereading the earlier ones probably since the 1960s (when they were collected in a smaller book), but I've rarely read this whole collection, because they're quite diverse and I don't like them equally. I might give four stars to some and two stars to others, so I give three stars to the collection as a whole.

Time Patrol: This introduces us to Manse Everard, the hero of the stories, showing his recruitment into the Time Patrol in 1954. It makes a good introduction and quite a good story.

Brave to Be a King: Quite a good story about Cyrus the Great, founder of the first Persian Empire. It has a classic time-travel plot since reused by other writers. It's not a happy story, but I reread it nevertheless.

Gibraltar Falls: A minor story about the Zanclean Flood, more than 5 million years in the past; it's OK but there's not much to it.

The Only Game In Town: Quite an interesting story though not one of my favourites; set in America in 1280 AD.

Delenda Est: My favourite of the older stories here, this features a colourful alternative world created by a deliberate alteration of history.

Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks: Another good and colourful story set in ancient Tyre, 950 BC.

The Sorrow of Odin the Goth: I don't normally reread this one because I find it depressing. Set in the 4th century.

Star of the Sea: I normally skip this one too, for the same reason. Set in ancient Germany in the 1st century.

The Year of the Ransom: The best of the later stories, in which time-travelling baddies plan to steal the gold of the Aztecs, a Spanish conquistador captures a time machine, and Wanda Tamberly is introduced. She later turns up in other stories, though not in this collection.

Death and the Knight: Another unhappy story, about the downfall of the Knights Templar in 1307, although I've occasionally reread it.