Crosstime Traffic
Encyclopedia
Crosstime Traffic is a series of books by Harry Turtledove
. The central premise of the stories is an Earth that has discovered access to alternate universes where history went differently. "Crosstime Traffic" is the name of the company with a global monopoly on the technology.
's Paratime series
and Keith Laumer
's Imperium Series. One tribute paid to Piper's series is the names of the inventors of temporal transposition: Ghaldron and Hesthor in Piper, Galbraith and Hester in Turtledove. In all of the series the "home timeline" was running low on resources, and has used its knowledge of time to covertly import supplies from other Earths and save their civilization from collapse. The most important difference is the nature of the home timeline. Piper's world was inhabited by a culture which had been technologically advanced for thousands of years and was even more distantly related to our own. Laumer's series had a civilization that was less advanced than our own in almost every way except for their travel technology. Turtledove's world, although set in the 2090s, resembles our 2000s, with modest general advances in technology plus the crosstime capability.
The books are young adult
novel
s with teenage protagonists, who frequently who become stranded in dangerous alternate worlds and must adapt to survive. Their adventures give them increased appreciation for the benefits of living in a civilized, high-tech society.
Invariably, each book has two viewpoint characters, a boy and a girl - different ones in each book; in most books one of them is from the home timeline and the other from a visited alternate, which greatly decreases the chances of love interest developing between them being successfully consummated.
While there is considerable violence, the language and plots are restricted by the intended audience. For instance, In High Places
includes the prospect of an enslaved girl being sexually abused, but does not use the word "rape" (although the word is later used in The Valley-Westside War
).
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
. The central premise of the stories is an Earth that has discovered access to alternate universes where history went differently. "Crosstime Traffic" is the name of the company with a global monopoly on the technology.
Background
The background strongly resembles that of H. Beam PiperH. Beam Piper
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper...
's Paratime series
Paratime series
The Paratime series written by H. Beam Piper consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel; they deal with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories, and uses that ability to trade for goods and services their own, exhausted...
and Keith Laumer
Keith Laumer
John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a U.S. diplomat...
's Imperium Series. One tribute paid to Piper's series is the names of the inventors of temporal transposition: Ghaldron and Hesthor in Piper, Galbraith and Hester in Turtledove. In all of the series the "home timeline" was running low on resources, and has used its knowledge of time to covertly import supplies from other Earths and save their civilization from collapse. The most important difference is the nature of the home timeline. Piper's world was inhabited by a culture which had been technologically advanced for thousands of years and was even more distantly related to our own. Laumer's series had a civilization that was less advanced than our own in almost every way except for their travel technology. Turtledove's world, although set in the 2090s, resembles our 2000s, with modest general advances in technology plus the crosstime capability.
The books are young adult
Young adult literature
Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s with teenage protagonists, who frequently who become stranded in dangerous alternate worlds and must adapt to survive. Their adventures give them increased appreciation for the benefits of living in a civilized, high-tech society.
Invariably, each book has two viewpoint characters, a boy and a girl - different ones in each book; in most books one of them is from the home timeline and the other from a visited alternate, which greatly decreases the chances of love interest developing between them being successfully consummated.
While there is considerable violence, the language and plots are restricted by the intended audience. For instance, In High Places
In High Places (Turtledove)
In High Places is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is a part of the Crosstime Traffic series, and takes place in an alternate world where the Black Death was much more virulent, resulting in a Europe largely decimated and subsequently populated by Muslims.-Plot summary:The book...
includes the prospect of an enslaved girl being sexually abused, but does not use the word "rape" (although the word is later used in The Valley-Westside War
The Valley-Westside War
The Valley-Westside War is a 2008 young adult, alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the latest in the Crosstime Traffic series.-Background:...
).
Novels in the Crosstime Traffic series
- Gunpowder EmpireGunpowder EmpireGunpowder Empire is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first part of the Crosstime Traffic series.-Plot summary:In the novel, Jeremy and Amanda Solter are two teenagers living in the late 21st century...
(2003): The first book in the series, it involves a pair of siblings stranded during a siege of an outpost of a Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
that never fell. - Curious NotionsCurious NotionsCurious Notions is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is a part of the Crosstime Traffic series. In Curious Notions, the Central Powers won World War I prior to the United States entering the war. Subsequently, the German Empire invaded and conquered the United States in the 1950s....
(2004): The second book in the series is about a teenager and his father who are running an electronics store in San FranciscoSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
in a world where Imperial Germany reigns supreme following its victory in World War One. - In High PlacesIn High Places (Turtledove)In High Places is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is a part of the Crosstime Traffic series, and takes place in an alternate world where the Black Death was much more virulent, resulting in a Europe largely decimated and subsequently populated by Muslims.-Plot summary:The book...
(2005): Takes place in a world where the Black DeathBlack DeathThe Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
killed four-fifths of Europe's population, and the MoorsMoorsThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
still occupy Spain and southern FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
never happened. - The Disunited States of AmericaThe Disunited States of AmericaThe Disunited States of America is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is a part of the Crosstime Traffic series, and takes place in an alternate world where the U.S. was never able to agree on a constitution and has long since evolved with each state as a separate country...
(2006): This book concerns a pair of teenagers, one from the Cross-time civilization, one a native, who meet in a VirginiaVirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
where the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fell apart, in a North America torn by war between numerous independent states. The working title for this book was The Untied States of America. - The GladiatorThe Gladiator (novel)The Gladiator is a 2007 Harry Turtledove novel for young adults. Part of the loose Crosstime Traffic family of books it is set in a world in an alternate history in which the Soviet Union has won the Cold War. It tied with Jo Walton's Ha'penny for the 2008 Prometheus Award.-Plot summary:The...
(2007): This novel is set in a world dominated by the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, after it won the Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
in the late 20th century. In ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, two teenagers chafe under the deadening rule of communismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
— until they discover the existence of Crosstime Traffic through a strategy gamingStrategy gameA strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
shop which is not as it seems. - The Valley-Westside WarThe Valley-Westside WarThe Valley-Westside War is a 2008 young adult, alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the latest in the Crosstime Traffic series.-Background:...
(2008): The sixth book in the series, set in Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
a world in which a nuclear warNuclear warfareNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
took place in 1967. LA and the rest of the USA are split into several tiny republics, kingdoms and such, we are told a story of when the Valley invaded the Westside.
External links
- Crosstime Traffic page on Official website.
- Crosstime Traffic at the Harry Turtledove Wiki