The Time Stream by John Taine

Not really about time travel

Eric Temple Bell (1883–1960) was a Scottish-American mathematician who taught at the University of Washington and Caltech. He wrote science fiction novels under the pen name of John Taine. His novel The Time Stream was first serialized in 1931 issues of the pulp magazine Wonder Stories before being published in book form in 1946. I like vintage science fiction and had read a couple good comments recommending Taine. Of his work, I chose to read The Time Stream strictly for its title, because I like stories about time travel. I soon found out, however, that this novel isn’t so much about time travel.

The story opens in 1906. Eight men and one woman from varying backgrounds and walks of life become acquainted with each other in San Francisco. During one of their social gatherings, they discover that they have the ability to “enter the time stream” and ride it into the past, or maybe even into the future. At first, they’re not sure. How did they get this incredible power? Well, it turns out they’re not San Franciscans at all. They are actually the governing council of an ancient civilization named Eos, which exists on another planet with five man-made suns. These Eosians use the time stream to travel back and forth between two worlds. When they are on Earth, they often forget their existence on Eos, and vice versa (although they tend to remember when it’s convenient for the story). They seem to have bodies in both worlds. When they are occupying one, the other lies dormant in a deathlike suspended animation.

Eos is more technologically advanced than 20th-century Earth. The Eosians have unlocked the secrets of nature to learn amazing techniques for manipulating matter and energy. They have also developed a society based entirely on rational thought, allowing for no violence or love. Their rationalism extends to a prescribed breeding program for all inhabitants. The woman of the group, Cheryl, decides to defy this eugenics program by marrying a man for love. Some of the time travelers, however, have seen a future in which this love-mating causes an apocalyptic event leading to the destruction of Eos. The male council members try to persuade her from making this catastrophic choice.

It is often very difficult to tell what is going on in The Time Stream. Am I reading about the future or the past? Are we on Eos now, or Earth? Who remembers what from when? Even the eight time-traveling colleagues are difficult to tell apart. The problem is that Taine tells the story as if he’s written the novel for an audience of Eosians and just assumes that readers from Earth will know what’s going on in this strange world he’s created in his head. Although Taine/Bell himself may be a rational man of mathematics with likely some knowledge of how the universe works, he goes off into flights of fancy more fitting to the fantasy and horror fiction of William Hope Hodgson or Robert W. Chambers. If the laws of physics and logic as we know them operate in Eos, they’re barely recognizable. The most frustrating aspect of the book is that time travel is totally unnecessary to the story, as are all the Earth scenes. The plot is entirely about Eos and a coup and rebellion that takes place there. Why not just tell us that story and leave San Francisco out of it? Also, if the message of the book involves contrasting love with rationalism, for most of the novel Taine really seems to be writing in favor of eugenics.

Reading The Time Stream gives one the impression that the sci-fi pulps were so desperate for content that they would print just about anything. If John Taine has an esteemed reputation in science fiction history, it is certainly not due to this book, which is just a hot mess.