The Crossroads of Time

The Crossroads of Time

~ 1st Novel in the Crosstime Series by Andre Norton

(Series aka) Blake Walker

crossroads of time 1962 d 546

Synopsis ~

Write-up from the ACE paperback edition ~

Everything gets a second chance! That’s the shattering discovery Blake Walker made when he learned that there are innumerable parallel worlds – on each of which history has taken a different alternate path!
Crossroads of Time is a brilliant science-fiction novel of how Blake crossed from Alternate Earth to Alternate Earth in a search for the means to save his own home world from disaster!

Write-up from the back of 1970’s ACE paperback edition ~

When Blake walker foiled a murder attempt on one of his neighbors he somehow found himself drafted into a fantastic chase for a dangerous criminal – Through the almost infinite levels of alternate Earths.
It was a chase would take him through level upon level of unknown dangers in search of a ruthless genius who had found our Earth the perfect place to begin his series of conquests.
If Walker succeeded, he would save Earth. If he failed, his homeworld could be enslaved, and he could be trapped on an alien Earth!

Write-up from the 1980’s ACE paperback edition ~

Blake Walker has never really known who he is, or where his strange flashes of intuition come from. But when they help him to foil a murder, he finds himself drafted in a frantic chase for a criminal genius – A chase that will lead him through almost infinite levels of alternate realities.
The stakes are high. For if he succeeds, he saves Earth from the ultimate desecration. If he fails, Earth is lost… and he is lost to Earth forever, stranded at The Crossroads of Time

Write-up from the dust jacket of the Gregg Press edition ~

In Crossroads of Time, the forth volume of the Space Adventure Novels of Andre Norton, college student Blake Walker is plucked out of contemporary America and flung into an incredible series of adventures sweeping back and forth across time. He intervenes to prevent the murder of a Time Patrolman, unaware that the technique he is using is not of this world - with disastrous results. This draws Blake into a deadly struggle between the Time Patrolmen and Pranj, their psychotic and power-mad enemy. The struggle involves a multi-dimensional chase through fantastic alternate worlds in pursuit of Pranj, who must be stopped before he can take over several of these worlds, including Blake Walker's!

Write-ups from fans ~

After the deaths of his foster father and mother, Blake Walker (the "alley baby" subsequently adopted by the policeman who found him) goes to New York to attend an art college. While overnighting at a hotel, he feels an imminent sense of danger; when the feeling becomes to strong, he opens his hotel room door just in time to assist one of the other patrons from being mugged at gunpoint. The "muggee" shows Blake some identification that would seem to be that of the FBI. While Blake and the "Federal Agent" await the Fed's men to take away the prisoner, someone, who says he's the hotel detective, comes to Blake's door. To the "Federal Agent" , that means his opponents have associated Blake with him, and Blake is now in danger. So when the rest of his men arrive, they insist Blake go along with them. It turns out the "Feds" are intertemporal police searching for a renegade from their own time, and that Blake himself must be a refugee from still another timeline, because he has a natural psychic block that does not allow them to take him over and erase his memories to leave him in safety to resume his own life. During a snow storm, Blake leaves the safe house on an errand to the nearby drug store, but gets captured by the renegade's men and swept into a series of crosstime adventures, which he just barely escapes from, arriving back in a New York radically changed by Hitler's win of the Battle of Britain. The good guys catch up with him then, and manage to defeat the renegade with the unwitting assistance of the New York freedom fighters. ~ SL

There are many stories by many authors about alternate worlds side by side like pages in a book, where new timelines were formed by decisions and events{example: a man turns right instead of left at an intersection and a cure for a plague is never discovered and ninety percent of human life is wiped out. Or if only Germany and Japan got the A-Bomb and went on to rule the world.
This is one of the earliest stories with this plot device. I cannot recall any earlier, but that is just me and my faulty memory. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
As with many of Andre's protagonists, Blake Walker was alone, an abandoned baby of unknown origin found in an alley by patrolman Blake and Sgt. Walker, hence the name. Forward twenty years....
As usual, Blake is in the wrong place at the wrong time (or was it the right place at the right time?) and he saves the life of an agent in a secret group that monitors and patrols the alternate worlds. Blake discovers that he has some psi powers but the agents are more powerful and well trained in the use of their gifts. And then the "fun" starts. This group is chasing down a powerful psi criminal mastermind who is looking through all the levels (alternate worlds) to find one where he can set himself up as ruler of the world. Blake gets recruited by one side and kidnapped by the other and is caught in a cosmic tug-of-war. Good Book. ~ PG

Reviews ~

Various reviews ~ For more info and other listings see Articles Over the Years

1956 by The Editor in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September
1956 by P. Schuyler Miller in Astounding Science Fiction, November, reprinted in:
(UK) Astounding Science Fiction, March 1957
1956 by Anthony Boucher in Fantasy and Science fiction, September
1976 by Aidan Warlow in Times Literary Supplement, July 16
1979 by Frederick Patten in Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review, February, reprinted in: (2009) Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review: The Complete Series, Vol. I, No. 1-Vol. II, No. 13, January 1979-February 1980 also in Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review: The Complete Series, 1979-1980
2015 by James Nicoll
2018 by Judith Tarr

Bibliography of English Editions ~

(1956) ACE Double Book containing The Crossroads of Time and Mankind on the Run by Gordon R. Dickson ~ Published by ACE, PB, # D-164, $0.35, 169+151pg ~ cover of The Crossroads of Time by Schultz ~ cover of Mankind on the Run by Edward Valigursky

(1962) Published by ACE, PB, # D-546, $0.35, 169pg - # F-391 1966 $0.40 169pg - #12311 1969 $0.60 190pg - covers by Schultz ~ #12312 1974 $1.25 190pg - covers by unknown, ~ #12313 1978 $1.75 242pg - #12314 1980 $1.95 242pg - #12315 1982 $2.25 242pg - #12316 1985 $2.50 242pg - covers by Dean Ellis

(1976) Published by Gollancz, HC, 0-575-02077-6, £2.75, 192pg ~ UK printing ~ cover by Tony Roberts {Red Paper Boards}

(1978) Published by Gregg Press, HC, 0-8398-2418-1, $7.95, 190pg ~ Space Adventure Novels of Andre Norton 4 ~ Dust Jacket by Jack Gaughan, Frontmatter by Elizabeth R. Cooke {Binding: 5.625 x 8.25 - Brown Cloth Boards with Gold Lettering (Publisher states the color is Burnt Orange), Orange Endpapers}

Crosstime (2008) Published by BAEN, HC, 1-416-55529-3, $23.00 ~ cover by Stephen Hickman ~ Omnibus containing The Crossroads of Time (1962) & Quest Crosstime (1965)

Non-English Editions ~

(1958) Published in Hamburg, Germany; by Alfons Semrau, Abenteuer Im Weltenraum, Band 9, DM 1.00, 96pg ~ German title Am Kreuzweg der Zeit [On the Way of the Cross of Time] ~~ mistakenly credited by the publisher to Philip K. Dick

(1964) Published in Munich, Germany; by Terra, Band 55, DM 0.70, 65pg~ cover by Johnny Bruck ~ German title Am Kreuzweg der Zeit [On the Way of the Cross of Time] ~~ mistakenly credited by the publisher to Philip K. Dick ~ Includes Essay "Mars - 1969!" by Kurt Mahr

(1976) Published in Berlin, Germany; by Ullstein, 35-480-3203-6, Ullstein 2000, Ullstein-Bücher 3203, 126pg ~ translation by Ingrid Rothmann ~ cover by Don Punchatz ~ German title Kreuzweg der Zeit [The Way of the Cross of Time]

(1962) Published in Barcelona, Italy ~ Italian title Las Encrucijadas Del Tiempo [The Crossroads of Time]

(1970) Published in Piacenza, Italy; by Casa Editrice La Tribuna, Galassia, n. 110, 350 lir, 148pg ~ translation by Filippo Osvaldini ~ cover by Ferruccio Alessandri ~ Italian title I corridoi del tempo [The corridors of time] ~ Published with several original Italian short stories/articles.

(1974) Published in Piacenza, Italy; by Casa Editrice La Tribuna, Bigalassia n. 17 ~ translation by Filippo Ovaldini ~ Italian title I corridoi del tempo [The corridors of time]

(1996) Published in Poznań, Poland; by Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 83-861-3819-X, 202pg ~ translation by Piotr Kuś (Peter Schmidt) ~ cover by Agentur Luserke ~ Polish title Skrzyżowania światów [Crossing worlds]

(2000) Published in Warsaw, Poland; by Amber, 83-724-5367-5, 160pg ~ translation by Maciej Pintara ~ cover by Tony Roberts ~ Polish title Rozdroża Czasu [Crossroads of Time]

(2010) Published in Moscow, by Eksmo, 978-5-699-44497-7, PB, 320pg ~ translation by Dimtry Arseniev ~ cover by W. Nartova ~ Russian title Перекрестки времени [Crossroads of Time] ~ Limited to 5000 copies

(2017) Published in Moscow, by Eksmo, 978-5-699-95655-5, PB, 288pg ~ translation by Dimtry Arseniev ~ cover art by A. Dubovik ~ Russian title Перекрестки времени [Crossroads of Time] ~ Limited to 3000 copies

(1962) Published in Cenit, Spain: by Cencia Ficcion, PB, #33, 236pg ~ translation by Mariano Orta Manzano ~ cover by Andreu ~ Spanish title Las encrucijadas del tiempo [The Crossroads of time]

Russian Omnibus Editions ~

(1993) Published in Chisinau, by EYA, 5-868-92068-6, HC, 608pg ~ Russian title Зеркало Мерлина [Merlin's Mirror]

Contains:

- "Merlin's Mirror" ~ pp. 3-137
- "Yurth Burden" as "The Burden of the Yurts" ~ pp. 138-221
- "The Crossroads of Time" as "At the crossroads of time" ~ pp. 222-350
- "Quest Crosstime" as "Search at the Crossroads of Time" ~ pp. 351-465
- "Operation Time Search" ~ pp. 466-605

(1995) Published in Zelenograd, by Zelenogradskaya Books, 5-863-14044-5, HC, 384pg ~ cover by Peter Andrew Jones ~ Russian title Поиск на перекрестке времен [Quest Crosstime]

Contains:

- "Quest Crosstime" as "Search at the Crossroads of Times" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 3-182
- "The Crossroads of Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 183-380

(2001) Published in Moscow, by Eksmo, 5-040-07452-2, HC, 512pg ~ cover by W. Nartova ~ Russian title Звездные врата [Star Gate]

Contains:

- "Operation Time Search" as "Operation Search in Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 5-146
- "The Crossroads of Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 147-264
- "Quest Crosstime" as "Search at the crossroads of time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 265-390
- "Stargate" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 391-509

(2002) Published in Moscow, by Eksmo, 5-699-01010-6, PB, 384pg ~ cover by W. Nartova ~ Russian title Перекрестки времени [Crossroads of Time]

Contains:

- "Operation Time Search" as "Operation Search in Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 5-209
- "The Crossroads of Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 210-380

(2014) Published in Moscow by Eksmo, 9785699743988, HC, 672pgs ~ cover art by A. Dubovik ~ Russian title Перекрестки времени [Crossroads of Time] ~ Limited to 3100 copies

Contains:

- "The Crossroads of Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 5-158
- "Quest Crosstime" as "Search at the crossroads of time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 159-320
- "Stargate" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 321-480
- "Operation Time Search" as "Operation Search in Time" ~ translation by D. Arseniev, pp. 481-669