The Corridors of Time
Poul Anderson
204 pages
published in 1965

Malcolm Lockridge is in prison, awaiting his trial for murder, after he had accidentally killed a teenager who had tried to mug him. He has little hope of getting acquitted, until a mysterious and beautiful woman, Storm Darroway visits him, making him an offer to come work for her in return for her setting him free. He naturally agrees and after his trial, he travels to Denmark where Storm puts him to work. There they are supposedly going to dig up an old treasure Ukranian rebels buried years ago in order to use it to further the causes of freedom around the world. This is however only a cover story, as Malcolm finds out when they get to the burial place. It is huge, extending for miles underground and filled with technology far in advance of 20th century equipment. Malcolm has little time for questions though, as they end up in a fire fight with three men coming through one of the many energy portals lining the undergound tunnel. They win and Storm takes him through one of the portals into another world. The world of 1827 B.C.

Storm Darroway is of course a time traveller, born into a future time about two thousand years after Malcolm's time. In that time the world is divided in two camps, Rangers and Wardens. They cannot fight each other in the present so instead they try and outmanoeuvre each other in the past. Theirs is a struggle between the Ranger's controlling and rational nature versus the free, animal wholeness of the Wardens. Storm is of course a leader of the Wardens, opposed by the vile Bann. Now she needs Malcolm's help to oppose him here in the Denmark of 1827 B.C., the last era of goddess worship, before the patriarchal invaders with their Sungods and Ranger support sweep it away...

Of course, the conflict is not as black and white as Storm makes it out to be and Malcolm becomes slowly aware that not all is well in the Warden's lands either. He also becomes aware he may have a bigger role to play in this conflict then Storm knew or suspected - not necessarily in her side's favour...

I have not yet read a bad Anderson novel and this is no exception. All the usual Anderson elements are present: an independently minded hero who is more then he seems, the love for and interest in Scandinavia, the longing and approval with which the more simple life of 1827 B.C, is descripted, coupled with the quest for freedom. No, this is not one of his best or most original novels, but it's still a good read and a fine tale.