Time is the Traitor

Last updated

"Time Is the Traitor" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in September, 1953. [1] It is included in the Bester collections The Dark Side of the Earth (1964), Star Light, Star Bright (1976) and Virtual Unrealities (1997) and has been extensively anthologized.

Contents

Synopsis

John Strapp is a business consultant whose savant-like intuitive genius makes him so valuable that his support staff indulges all his eccentricities — including homicidal fugue states.

Critical response

The story was selected for Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 15 (1953) (DAW books, 1986) and for The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1954 (Fredrick Fell, 1954), as well as for The NESFA Core Reading List of Fantasy and Science Fiction. [2]

Rich Horton described "Time Is the Traitor" as "glorious" and "madly odd". [3] Fiona Kelleghan considered that John Strapp's name ""suggests both punishment and restraint", observing that Strapp was "tormented by flashbacks" and "compelled to repeat the same actions over and over", [4] while Arthur D. Hlavaty of The New York Review of Science Fiction called Strapp an example of the "union of the artist and the criminal that is often considered Bester's defining theme." [5] Kirkus Reviews judged it to be "more style than substance." [6]

Adaptations

Bester adapted the story for CBS Radio Mystery Theater, with the title "One Girl in a Million." [7] In 1998, Warner Brothers purchased film adaptation rights to the story for $500,000. [8]

Related Research Articles

Alfred Bester

Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, including The Demolished Man, winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953.

Lisa Goldstein is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. Her 1982 novel The Red Magician won a National Book Award in the one-year category Original Paperback and was praised by Philip K. Dick shortly before his death. Her 2011 novel, The Uncertain Places, won the 2012 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, and her short story, "Paradise Is a Walled Garden," won the 2011 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History.

Charles Leonard Harness was an American science fiction writer.

Andy Duncan (writer)

Andy Duncan is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose work frequently deals with Southern U.S. themes.

<i>Golem<sup>100</sup></i>

Golem100 is science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. Currently out of print, it was published by Simon & Schuster in 1980. It was based on Bester's short story "The Four-Hour Fugue".

<i>Virtual Unrealities</i>

Virtual Unrealities is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Alfred Bester with an introduction by Robert Silverberg.

<i>The Computer Connection</i> Book by Alfred Bester

The Computer Connection is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. Originally published as a serial in Analog Science Fiction, it appeared in book form in 1975. Some editions give it the title Extro. The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1976.

<i>Tender Loving Rage</i> Book by Alfred Bester

Tender Loving Rage is a novel by science fiction author Alfred Bester, published posthumously in 1991, four years after Bester's death in 1987. In his 1991 article, "Alfred Bester's Tender Loving Rage", his friend Charles Platt explains that Bester wrote the novel around 1959 using the title Tender Loving Rape. The book went unsold for many years, until Platt persuaded Bester to allow him to get the book published by a small press; Platt suggested the change of title and Bester agreed.

The 16th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Solacon, was held August 29–September 1, 1958, at the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, California, United States. Solacon was physically in Los Angeles, but technically in South Gate, California, to fulfill their longtime bid slogan of "South Gate in '58."

The 17th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Detention, was held September 4–7, 1959, at the Pick Fort Shelby Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, United States.

The 21st World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Discon I, was held August 31–September 2, 1963, at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., United States.

The 27th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as St. Louiscon, was held August 28–September 1, 1969, at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, under the auspices of OSFA, the Ozark Science Fiction Association.

Fiona Kelleghan

Fiona Kelleghan is an American academic and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy. She was a metadata librarian and a cataloguer at the University of Miami's Otto G. Richter Library. She left the University in 2011.

Will Ludwigsen

Will Ludwigsen is an American writer of horror, mystery, and science fiction. His work has appeared in a number of magazines including Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons. He has also published three collections, including the highly praised In Search Of and Others.

"The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1958. It has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, and has been reprinted nine times, most recently in Virtual Unrealities (1997).

"The Pi Man" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, in 1959. Bester subsequently revised it extensively for his 1976 collection Star Light, Star Bright, changing the characters' names, "develop(ing) minor scenes", modifying the typographical "word pictures", and deleting several "stale references to beatnik culture".

5,271,009

"5,271,009" is a science fiction/fantasy short story by American writer Alfred Bester. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, in 1954, it is also known as "The Starcomber".

"The Diary of the Rose" is a 1976 dystopian science fiction novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Future Power collection. The tale is set in a totalitarian society which uses brainwashing by "electroshocks" to eradicate any kind of political dissent.

References

  1. Von Ruff, Al. "Publication Listing". Internet Speculative Fiction Database . Retrieved October 5, 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  2. "NESFA Core Reading List of Fantasy and Science Fiction". New England Science Fiction Association. October 29, 1997. Retrieved October 5, 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  3. Horton, Rich (February 20, 2004). "The Best Science Fiction of 1953: A Look a Potential Retro Hugos". Locus Online . Retrieved October 5, 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  4. Kelleghan, Fiona (November 1994). "Hell's My Destination: Imprisonment in the Works of Alfred Bester". Science Fiction Studies . Greencastle, Indiana: DePauw University. 21 (64, number 3). ISSN   0091-7729 . Retrieved October 24, 2013.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. Hlavaty, Arthur D. "Virtual Unrealities by Alfred Bester" . Retrieved October 5, 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. "Virtual Unrealities". Kirkus Reviews. October 1, 1997. Retrieved October 5, 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  7. Column: Summer Screams: CBS Radio Mystery Theater, by Randy Stafford, at Innsmouth Free Press; published June 22, 2012; retrieved June 19, 2018
  8. Warner Bros. Buys Bester's Time, at SciFi.com; published June 15, 1998; retrieved June 19, 2018