Brion Goes Backwards

in the Ekcolir Reality
Original cover art by Leo Summers,
John Duillo and Ed Valigursky

After reading "Worlds of the Imperium" I next read "The Other Side of Time" as originally published in the April, May and June issues of Fantastic (1965). I'm always in the market for a fun time travel story (my favorite); how does this one measure up?

Compare and Contrast

I have no idea if Laumer had read the 1963 novel "Planet of the Apes". Pierre Boulle was from the generation before Laumer and got caught up in the Pacific theater part of World War II. Most of Laumer's time in the military came after the Korean war.

 

I long ago got my fill of military science fiction, so I have to hold my nose when reading stories about primates going to war, whether they be humans or non-human apes. Independent of the number of bullets fired and loudness of the explosions, time travel stories can provide readers with fun and interesting twists on the paths that people take through time.

Planet of the Apes

I'm not sure when I first saw the film "Planet of the Apes". It was probably in September of 1973 when CBS broadcast the film on television. The ending, when I realized that the planet of the Apes is Earth, was a real mind trip. From a scientific perspective, the movie raises a question. Did multiple species of speaking apes suddenly arise on Earth by genetic mutations after a nuclear war?

I'm the cool hero in this
1960s adventure story, and yes,
I'm damned well going to smoke!
interior art by Dan Adkins

"The Star King" was published by Jack Vance in 1963. In that story, Vance provided an interesting suggestion for our human origins. What if space aliens visited Earth long ago, captured some Neanderthals, and genetically modified them so as to produce US. With our better brains, we then drove the poor Neanderthals to extinction.

For his 1965 story "The Other Side of Time", Laumer joined the crowd and crafted his own story about apes fighting for control of Earth. How does Laumer's story about apes from parallel universes and our human origins hold up as a fantasy story with some Sci Fi plot elements?

image source

Having just read "Worlds of the Imperium", I expected Laumer to continue the theme of protagonist Brion Bayard enjoying the rather low-tech version of Earth that exists in the Imperium. Thus, I was surprised by all the new Hi Tek™ gizmos deployed by Laumer in "The Other Side of Time". One of the rapid technological advances is the introduction of an "MC suit". Rather than needing a spaceship-like device with a crew in order to move between parallel universes, now we have a more refined technology that allows you to simply wear an "MC suit" and then travel to another universe. 

 

And of course, since there was no effort expended in making the MC suit, just a slight modification can convert it into an "S-suit" that will also travel through time.

 

image source

We are spared the dreadful specter of all this fancy technology being built in the attic of a mad scientist because Laumer has an entire multiverse to work with... surely in some universe it will be possible for a team of scientists to discover time travel.

And if you can travel through time, then why not imagine that time can be made to run backwards? There are no limits to what can be done within a fantasy story.

I'm a complete sucker for stories about loops in time. For example, in The End of Eternity, the entire story is built around a time loop in which time travel technology is made possible by a time traveler from the future. There is also a smaller time loop within which the main character in the story has a mistaken yet terrifying encounter with himself while traveling in Time.

Okay... right at the start of "The Other Side of Time" the story is labeled "science-fantasy", so there is no real point in a reader like me fretting over the fact that the imaginary science elements in the story seem to magically bend as needed to keep the story moving along. 

 

Going ape in the Ekcolir Reality
Original cover art by Herbert Bruck
and see this.

In the original Imperium story ("Worlds of the Imperium"), one copy of Brion was recruited to kill and take the place of his copy on another version of Earth. "The Other Side of Time" opens with a second copy of Brion (call him Brion2) suddenly appearing. In "The Other Side of Time", this new mystery of a second Brion is not resolved until the very end of the story.

 

Worried that Brion1 might be an imposter from another universe, Brion1 is relentlessly questioned by officials of the Imperium. After proving that he is the real McCoy Brion1, he wants nothing more than to go home to dinner and his beautiful redheaded wife, Barbro.

Remember, this is Laumer's imagined universe in which homicidal maniacs can appear from thin air at any time, intent on mowing down dancing women with machine guns or detonating an atomic bomb. 

 

So, our hero Brion1 is soon tracking a mysterious intruder through the empty night-time hallways of Imperial Security Headquarters, and rather than raise an alarm, he decides to quietly investigate all by himself.

Within the Imperium fictional universe, great forces can be unleashed that will suddenly send people tumbling off through the Multiverse, so with a few flying sparks, Brion1 is sent careening off into an inexplicable adventure through the Multiverse. My advice is stop reading when the sparks fly. Skip to part 2 of the story in the May issue and read the summary of part 1 that is provided there. Part 1 only serves to introduce three ideas: 1) the ape-men of the planet 'Hagroon' are intent on attacking the the Imperium, 2) there is another Imperium-like government in the Multiverse known as the Authority, from the planet called 'Xonigeel'. 

 

Space travel is unknown in this multiverse, so Hagroon and Xonigeel are simply versions of Earth that diverged in their histories far in the past, leading to technological civilizations built up by different apes other than we humans. Idea number three was mentioned above: some mysterious intruder was lurking around inside the Imperial Security Headquarters. There is other stuff in part 1, but really, enough is enough. 

 

Part 2 of the story takes place in a universe where the French Empire rules the world. Brion1 goes to Italy and finds a nearly completed MC device that might allow him to get back to the home universe of the Imperium. In this universe, the device that makes travel through the Miltiverse possible was never completed by its inventor, but the folks from Xonigeel make use of this version of Earth as a place to exile unwanted folks and trouble-makers like Brion1.

Why not an Earth ruled by rats?

In "Worlds of the Imperium", readers were told that in order to travel through the Miltiverse, a crew of at least three technicians are needed to carefully navigate from universe to universe. Now, because the plot demands it, Brion1 can build his own Multiverse travel machine and travel all by himself through the Multiverse in order to get home. That turns out to be a disaster, but then a technologically savvy friend from Xonigeel gives Brion1 a magical MC travel suit that allows him to return to the home world of the Imperium. Not only that, the magic travel suit allows Brion1 to arrive in Stockholm before he left, completing the time-loop and saving the Imperium from the Evil ape-men of Hagroon. Whew!

the other side of time

There is a lot of additional hand-waving about altering entropy and reversing Brion's movement through time. Since this is science fantasy, I'm not sure why Laumer felt the need for all that window dressing; poetry, I guess. 

 

The Brion Baynard drinking game

cover art by David Mattingly

If you are not much of a drinker then while reading "The Other Side of Time" you can do a shot of the hard stuff every time that Bryon is thrown into a prison cell while still allowed to keep his gun. If you really like to drink, then take a sip of beer every time you read the word "entropy", 2 swigs for each "null entropy" and 3 for each "anti-entropy".

 

At the end, we learn that the Neanderthals were the remnants of the Hagroon who accidentally got sent into the far past by Brion. And since no heart-warming adventure story is complete without genocide, Brion also casually destroys the entire universe of the Hagroon, ensuring that he can live happily ever after with the lovely Barbro 💕. Since Barbro is liberal minded, she even suggests bringing Brion's girl friend (Miss Olyvia) from the universe of the French Empire over to the universe of the Imperium.

Next: part 9 of "The Alastor Network"

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