Time in Advance
William Tenn
173 pages
published in 1958

William Tenn was one of the more interesting science fiction writers of the nineteen-fifties, somebody who couldn't have been published earlier, as his sophisticated style and use of satire and irony just wouldn't have been appreciated in a genre still dominated by John Campbell and Astounding. It was only by the opening up of science fiction by the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Galaxy, which created a space for authors who did not adhere to Campbell's ideas of good science fiction but wanted to write their own science fiction. Even though Tenn was "discovered" by Campbell, he was much more at home in Galaxy ; much of his best work was done there.

The bulk of William Tenn's work was written in the late forties and fifties; he largely stopped writing after 1963. At the time the short story still reigned supreme in science fiction, with the magazines as the heart and soul of the genre. When the novel took over in the mid seventies, those writers who either could not adapt or who were no longer writing were slowly frozen out. Novels are esier to sell than short story collections, especially of a writer that is no longer writing. For Tenn, this meant that while he still has a reputation as a good writer, he may be more read about than read...

As for myself, I've read quite a few of his stories, most;y in translation; I've also been able to find many of his short story collections over the years;Time in Advance being one of them. As a collection, it is typical of a time when books were cheap and largely disposable. There's no theme to this collection, it's just four unconnected stories probably selected to get the book up to a certain length. The stories themselves aren't bad, but they're not Tenn's best either.

In Firewater (first published in 1952) advanced aliens come to Earth and because they're so advanced anybody who comes into contact with them goes mad trying to understand them; or at least becomes as alien as the aliens themselves... It is as if the aliens are like firewater was to the native Americans, something that utterly destroys civilisation. But what if you're not interested in the firewater, but only in the clear container it comes in?

Time in Advance (1956) has one of William Tenn's most famous ideas: precrime. Want to murder someone? You can legally, but first you will have to serve your sentence first, by helping colonise very dangerous worlds. Nick Crandall did want to murder somebody badly enough to survive his seven years sentence and now he's back on Earth... Interesting idea, but somewhat of a pedestrian story.

The Sickness (1955) is about the first expedition to Mars, a joint USSR/US expedition, hampered by the international political tension developing back on Earth. They find an ancient Martian city and unfortunately with it a virus that strikes down most of the expedition...

Winthrop was Stubborn (1957) is a story about a group of 20th century timetravellers taken to the 25th century as ambassadors. Most of them want nothing better than to return home, but Winthrop was stubborn and wanted to stay...

In all, nice stories, but not that special. On the other hand, the collection is something that you'll finish in less than an hour anyway...