Anderson is an author mentioned in Stephen King's [Danse Macabre], and this was my first of his work. Several interconnected short stories featuring a band of time-hopping, super-intelligent soldiers charged with protecting the time line from malicious alterations. Allusions of a super-race of aliens, pulling the strings far into the future hover over the narratives, but they never make an appearance. There is an element of both noir and historical fiction, as the soldiers have to noodle out how to maneuver the minefields of history both for their own survival and for the timeline's survival. Ultimately, the set-up was better than the execution, at least for me. I think I would have preferred a singular narrative with a more unified explanation of the world.

3 bones!!! ( )

More like a bunch of loosely related short-stories than an actual novel. Not as developed as I hoped. ( )

I gave up reading this book of short stories. Very little plot development, one dimensional characters, frankly little drama. I was disappointed but it is just too juvenile for my more mature tastes...I might have enjoyed this book in my youth but it is just too simple nowadays for me. ( )

A collection of stories about the Time Patrol, centered around the character is Manse Everard. He goes back and forward in time, with interesting glimpses of past times and future probabilities, but I like Anderson's novels better -- more space to work out the ideas. ( )

Guardians of Time is a collection of short fiction centered around the Time Patrol, an organization responsible for keeping the time streams free of crime and mischief, all while avoiding paradox and anachronisms.

The series’ protagonist is pulled from his own time, given a respectable pay (by the reckoning of when these stories were first published), and access to the time travel facilities, where he is occasionally called upon to rescue a fellow time patrol officer from a backwards past civilization, or stop a ne’er-do-well whose procured a time machine of his own.

Each story covers a different challenge that may arise were such an organization to exist, and for what it’s worth, does a good job of presenting the material.

I for one, though, am glad that this is not my job, due to the constant travel, albeit through time instead of space. ( )