Parts of me wanted to give this book five stars, other parts, one star, so to compromise, three seems a good bet. This is a ludicrous book, truly, it is a bizarre and incredibly dated read which includes the best and worst of timetravel stories, often on each page. The structure of the story is magnificent - the details, nuances and generally neat workings out of some of the most complex parts of timetravel tales are the highlight of this. Really, it's not easy to construct this kind of thing so well, and to dip through history with such ease. I much prefer Silverberg's timetravel novels that stick with this excellence, rather than painting it with the colours this does. The main character's desire to bang a distant descendent of his I found completely bizarre and increasingly unpleasant, but it wasn't so much that as the fact that it felt as if even the author wasn't quite sure why he'd decided to put that bit in there, being as he's constantly trying to make it more explicable from the moment the idea crops up. The sexism and 'casual' racism you can in considerable part put down to the age of the book and, I think, the intended characterisation of a man who's grown up in this very genetically fussy, perfection-seeking, sexually free society. It isn't particularly palatable to read now, but I'd say an author writing such a character now would caveat those aspects every bit as much as Silverberg here does the incest taboo. That said, it gets harder and harder to understand why you're reading the book when everyone you encounter is progressively gross.
Time travel headache feels like ice cream brain freeze.Paradox, paradox, discontinuity, paradox, transposal displacement, paradox.Nothing for a reader to do but drink a beer and keep reading.Robert Silverberg wrote this libidinous, vulgar carnival ride in 1969 and it was nominated for the Hugo Award. This represents my 25th Silverberg work reviewed and I have come to accept that his lasciviousness makes late era Heinlein look like a boy scout. There is just going to be sex in a Silverberg work, lots of it, and this one has all the sensitivity of a bawdy limerick, reminiscent of Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love and All You Zombies – readers of those books will instantly know what I’m talking about.Silverberg’s protagonist is a time courier, distinct from a law enforcement time patrol – he’s essentially a tour guide. He and his guests go “up the line” meaning back into history. A fascination with and an adept knowledge of Byzantium colors Silverberg’s canon and this work characterizes that affinity as much of the novel is of history tours of Constantinople. Silverberg’s vivid description of the time is mindful of de Camp’s excellent 1941 novel Lest Darkness Fall.Told with humor and much locker room language, but also with Silverberg’s gift for storytelling this sexist and sometimes racist story will unsettle some with its over the top vulgarity but if you’re not easily offended and enjoy a good time travel romp, a reader will enjoy.
What do You think about Up The Line (2002)?
Comic blend of sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, and erotica. Sometimes the erotic sections probably cross the hazy, subjective line into pornography; either way, the book is definitely adult reading. That's too bad, really, since time travel adventures are always going to appeal to younger readers. In this book the protagonist takes a job as a time travel tour guide, specializing in medieval Constantinople. He gets himself in trouble with the Time Patrol, cops whose job it is to make sure time travellers don't change the past. He's a sex hound who used time travel in indulging his veracious appetite, as do several other of the time travellers in the book. The jokes are funny; the story is fascinating and fun, though easy to get lost in. The author explains, explores, and mocks the various paradoxes that would be involved in time travel. First published in 1969, it holds up surprising well today, with most of the science fiction of then still unrealized science fiction today. My first time reading Robert Silverberg and will keep my eyes open for more of his stuff.
—Richard Ward
Get an increasing number of time travelers together in one place and time, and something is bound to go awry. Here tour guides escort the rich and curious to historic events, to the repeated point of avoiding running into themselves escorting past and future sets of rich and curious to the same event. And among the tour guides are someone whose hobby is killing his own ancestors (attempted suicide by Grandfather Paradox), and another whose hobby is sex with his own ancestors.So what's our recently hired protagonist to do when eventually lured into a tryst with a great- great- multi-great grandmother? Why, follow through of course, with a grand set of paradoxical mishaps along the way.Also along for the ride are plenty of Silverberg sex scenes (rare is the chapter without at least one, including the side trip to the Bubonic Plague years) and some blatant racism.Assume for the moment that all eras were as "Free Love" friendly as when this was written; despite being historically detailed in Byzantine events, conveniently ignore the Byzantine penalties for various levels of fornication like public lashing, castration, and/or execution, which are likely a more direct deterrent than some Time Squad catching you trying to change history.
—Eric
Let's keep this simple....1) This book has not aged well. It's almost laughable today, but maybe it seemed trendy back in the 60's.2) The amount of sex in this book is really very unfortunate.3) The historical descriptions make the book of interest, but are also a bit dry.4) The plot doesn't really make an appearance until the last 20% of the book or so. Things pick up quite a bit. It tempted me to rate this book one star higher, but I have resisted. 5) The time travel gimmickry may have been cutting-edge back in the day, but today's audience is a bit more savvy. We've seen this on tv so often... but done better.6) Oh, and the amount of sex is really a shame.
—Bryan
