From: noone@nowhere.com   
      
   On 18/01/26 05:28, Don wrote:   
   > Titus G wrote:   
   >> Don wrote:   
   >>> Titus G wrote:   
   >>>> Robert Woodward wrote:   
   >>>> snip   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> 1) This story had time travelers who manipulated time by changing events   
   >>>>> in the past (and thus generate a new timeline). The story also had a   
   >>>>> character (non-time traveller) who remembered the erased timelines   
   >>>>> (IIRC, he, on occasion, couldn't find books he remembered reading   
   >>>>> because they had been written in the erased timeline and not the new   
   >>>>> one). I also remember that the last time manipulation that the time   
   >>>>> travelers performed in the book erased a time line where that character   
   >>>>> had been murdered. In the new one, he was still alive and he did   
   >>>>> remember being killed. BTW, sometime during the book, the time travelers   
   >>>>> became aware of him.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Murder in Metachronopolis by John C. Wright?   
   >>>> But it was first published in 2010 (isfdb).   
   >>>> It is the first story in City Beyond Time sub titled TALES OF THE FALL   
   >>>> OF METACHRONOPOLIS.   
   >>>   
   >>> Somehow the subtitle's significance eluded me until now. No wonder the   
   >>> non-novel's non-sequitural narrative was incoherent.   
   >>   
   >> You have lost me. I do not understand the above comment.   
   >   
   > Sorry, sometimes strange sentences slip out when my recreational word   
   > play gets the better of me.   
   >   
   > The plot knottiness in MURDER IN METACHRONOPOLIS (MiM) made an   
   > impression on me over a decade ago when it was first read. When you   
   > mentioned above how MiM is but one short story in a collection, a   
   > hypothesis immediately jumped to mind of incoherence caused by   
   > inadvertently reading the collection as if it were a novel.   
   >     But, no, when listening to it again during last night's dog walk   
   > on icy streets, it became clear how easy it is to discern the short   
   > stories that follow MiM. The problem irrefutably lies within the   
   > intricately dense, Van Vogtish, MiM plot. Perhaps it over-stimulates   
   > my mind. Regardless, it's too complex for me to grasp in a single   
   > hearing or reading.   
      
   Thank you for your explanation.   
      
   >     THE GOLDEN OECUMENE trilogy by Wright worked the same way. It   
   > required repetitive readings (eg hearings) to fully understand.   
   >     MiM subheads each story snippet with a random integer. What are   
   > they supposed to be? Something similar to nexus markers for THE GARDEN   
   > OF FORKING PATHS by Borges? Are readers supposed to put them in order   
   > to make sense of the plot? Such questions come to mind when MiM's either   
   > heard or read.   
      
   The numbers heading the story snippets state the chronological order of   
   events. I suspect that I would not have been able to follow the story if   
   I had listened to it rather than reading it. When I became confused when   
   reading, it was a simple task to get back on track by rereading parts   
   numbered one before or one after the current heading number   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)