The Other End of Time
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Cover art by John Harris
The Other End of Time is a 1996 science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl. It is the first novel in The Eschaton Sequence, which is about the adventures of Dan Dannerman, an American government agent of the near future who becomes involved with the discovery of advanced and warring aliens. The novel is about Dannerman and a small group of people who explore an abandoned space station, only to find themselves abducted by aliens who use them for experiments.
Plot
The novel is set in the near future, in a world in which the United States is struggling with many problems, including weapons of mass destruction, ecological damage, crime and hyperinflation. Then strange messages from space aliens are received. Dr. Pat Adcock has a theory that the aliens have taken up the old Starlab space station. Adcock recruits pilots Jimmy Lin and Martin Delasquez, an elderly astronomer (Rosaleen Artzybachova), and close protection agent Dan Dannerman (who is actually a government secret agent).
When they first explore the Starlab, they find strange alien technologies. Then suddenly, they are transported through space. The aliens have kidnapped the group because the aliens, called "Beloved Leaders", are battling against a terrorist named the Horch. The aliens are battling for dominance of the "Eschaton", which gives eternal life. The humans then learn that they are just copies of their old bodies; their real bodies were sent back to the Earth with wiped memories. Other copies have been experimented on with vivisection.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews praises Pohl for taking "...a hoary science fiction cliche--alien abduction--and turn[ing] it on its head."[1] Kirkus Reviews calls the novel an "...impeccably crafted, absorbing, and enjoyable reworking of mostly familiar material that, while satisfyingly self-contained, seems perfectly poised for sequels."[2]
References
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(with Jack Williamson)
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- Undersea Fleet (1956)
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- Gateway (1977)
- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980)
- Heechee Rendezvous (1984)
- The Annals of the Heechee (1987)
- The Gateway Trip (1990)
- The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (2004)
- The Other End of Time (1996)
- The Siege of Eternity (1997)
- The Far Shore of Time (1999)
- Man Plus (1976)
- Mars Plus (1994) (with Thomas T. Thomas)
(with Jack Williamson)
- Farthest Star (1975)
- Wall Around a Star (1983)
(with Jack Williamson)
- The Reefs of Space (1964)
- Starchild (1965)
- Rogue Star (1969)
- The Space Merchants (1953) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- The Merchants' War (1984)
- Venus, Inc. (1985 Omnibus) (this is a two-in-one volume containing The Space Merchants and The Merchants' War)
- Search the Sky (1954) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- Gladiator-At-Law (1955) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- Preferred Risk (1955) (with Lester del Rey)
- Slave Ship (1956)
- Presidential Year (1958) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- Wolfbane (1959) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth)
- Drunkard's Walk (1960)
- A Plague of Pythons (1964)
- The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965)
- Day Million (1970)
- The Best of Frederik Pohl (1975)
- Jem (1979)
- The Cool War (1981)
- Syzygy (1981)
- Starburst (1982)
- The Years of the City (1984)
- Black Star Rising (1985)
- The Coming of the Quantum Cats (1986)
- Terror (1986)
- Chernobyl (1987)
- Land's End (1988) (with Jack Williamson)
- The Day the Martians Came (1988)
- Narabedla Ltd. (1988)
- Homegoing (1989)
- The World at the End of Time (1990)
- Outnumbering the Dead (1990)
- Stopping at Slowyear (1991)
- The Singers of Time (1991) (with Jack Williamson)
- Mining the Oort (1992)
- The Voices of Heaven (1994)
- O Pioneer! (1998)
- The Last Theorem (2008) (with Arthur C. Clarke)
- All the Lives He Led (2011)