Today, for example, when I wandered in since it was pouring rain and I didn’t feel like dashing to the car until the weather began to behave better. This particular store has two sections of books — one consists of older or more beat-up books priced at $1 and the other priced at $5 or above.

In the SF shelves of the $1 section I found a copy of Time Patrol, an anthology of all the short stories and novellas author Poul Anderson wrote about a squadron of cops whose job is to keep history going as it has been by taking action to prevent time travelers from doing something years in the past which might change it. These poor guys have a hard row to hoe: each one knows that “The fabric of history is stained with human blood and suffering which he cannot, must not do anything to alleviate, lest his tampering bring disastrous alterations in future time.” That’s called the grandfather paradox and it’s a classic trope in time travel fiction.

Anderson was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers Association to go with his 7 Hugo Awards, his 3 Nebula awards and numerous other commendations. I’ve read a few of his books, but never these. For a buck I couldn’t resist it.