3.65 stars – it's half: super interesting, half: kinda boring, right? and half: dated as hell. But still, this novella where the Scipio brothers die in Spain and Hannibal of Carthage razes Rome during the Second Punic War (leaving the world with a future completely unlike ours, because instead of our LATIN heritage, everything comes from the PHOENICIANS... that blew my mind, omg) in Poul Anderson's *Guardians of Time* is pretty damn cool. If you like alternate history books, this one is a wild ...

Okay, I guess I need to write a review for this one.

[3.75 stars, rounded up to 4] for Poul Anderson's *Guardians of Time*. Not my usual cup of tea, but hey, duty calls!

I'd been wanting to read Poul Anderson's *Guardians of Time* for ages, so when I finally got my hands on it, I dove right in!Right away, the core concept grabbed me: a Patrol dedicated to safeguarding time, ensuring our timeline remains intact and major historical events aren't altered. Seriously, sign me up! I WANT TO BE A PATROLWOMAN! (Okay, after actually reading the stories, maybe not, but the idea of visiting ancient Rome, sixth-century BC Iran, or even just the 80s is incredibly appealing!...

Five short stories about time travel. Entertaining, but without a ton of depth, really. If you're a history buff, it's a lot of fun. Fun to read about how the chain of events has shaped mankind. You might expect that time travel could change history, but Poul Anderson depicts the continuum as a mesh of rubber bands. Not easy to distort; it always snaps back to its former shape. This resilience of time is why time travel is allowed at all. They can freely move back and forwards in time. The sto...

I'm marking "Guardians of Time" down for just one reason: it feels a bit bloodless. I have no issues with the whole time cop concept in general. The historical elements are pretty solid, even if they lean towards the classics. However, the main characters are very much "good guys" in the traditional cop mold. Considering this was written in the 1950s, well before Doctor Who and emerging from the long-standing tradition of square-jawed heroes in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, this isn't rea...

These time travel stories, mostly from the 1950s, still hold up remarkably well. SFF grandmaster Poul Anderson crafts some compelling alternate history scenarios while exploring fascinating historical what-ifs. These stories are packed with paradoxes, filled with examples of history shaping itself through intervention – intentional or otherwise – by those from the future. Anderson's writing is sharp, energetic, and brimming with interesting historical detail. He introduces some intriguing conce...

Poul Anderson is a master, and *Guardians of Time* is a fantastic blend of comedic situations and journeys through numerous time periods. The great thing is that this saga has more books because book one, at least, is excellent. Imagine Sheckley, Zelazny, and Heinlein all rolled into one, and you'll get a sense of the magic that Anderson has created. For fans of classic sci-fi adventure, *Guardians of Time* is a must-read.

Read in 2002. 7/10. Average of the 14 books I've read by this author: 6/10.Another fairly prolific classic author whose novels are generally entertaining.This one surpasses his average with a 7 (six others received the same score). The one I liked the most was "Tiempo de Fuego," with an 8/10.Actually, this novel contains 4 stories about the Guardians of Time, a group that protects history from historical deviations that could harm humanity (there are now several TV series on the subject: the Spa...

William S. Burroughs was known to scribble "GETS" in the margins of books he felt contained material worth, well, appropriating. "Good enough to steal," he'd say. My copy of Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson doesn't have any such markings... but honestly, it could. This book is pure gold for any time travel aficionado. If you're looking for a great sci-fi book, look no further.

Ray Bradbury floated the idea that science fiction is really just a sub-genre of fantasy; essentially, a fantastic, imaginative literature built on a scientific foundation. Within that sub-genre, we find the even more fantastical sub-genre of time travel. Time travel novels owe their existence to H.G. Wells and *The Time Machine*, first published way back in 1895. But I reckon a lot of modern time travel books are connected to Ray Bradbury’s classic short story, *A Sound of Thunder*, with its b...