Carol
Crigger writes westerns, mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy novels. She’s a 2-time Spur Award
finalist, and winner of the EPIC Award in the Western/Historical category.
She
tells me a favourite of her own novels is SHADOW SOLDIER, (credited to C.K. Crigger) 2nd in her
GUNSMITH TIME-TRAVEL series. Gunsmith BOOTHENAY IRONS has the power to
travel back in time and experience the history held within an antique gun. But
the 1911 Colt .45 Automatic she acquires has a mysterious power of its own.
It’s
Boothenay's fiancé, Caleb, who’s accidentally transported back to World War I. Boothenay
must travel back in time to rescue him, on the way encountering a mysterious
old man whose power is equal to her own.
According to Wikipedia time travel
features in ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish mythology. In Hindu mythology, 'The Mahabharata' mentions King Raivata
Kakudmi transported far into the future. The Japanese tale of ‘Urashima Taro,’ dating from 720 A.D.
tells of a young fisherman who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he
returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he
has been forgotten, his house is in ruins, and his family has died.
A contender for the earliest time travel science
fiction story is ‘Memoirs of the
Twentieth Century’ (1733) by SAMUEL MADDEN where British ambassadors in
1997 and 1998 correspond with diplomats of the then-present day, conveying the
political and religious conditions presumed to exist in the future.
Sleep transports characters through time in ‘Rip Van Winkle’ by WASHINGTON IRVING
(1819) and ‘A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court’ by MARK TWAIN (1889.)
One of the first stories to feature time travel by
means of a machine is ‘The Clock that
Went Backwards’ by EDWARD PAGE MITCHELL, which appeared in the ‘New York
Sun’ in 1881. An unusual clock, when wound, runs backwards and transports
people nearby back in time. H. G. WELLS’s ‘The
Time Machine’ (1895) popularized the concept of time travel by mechanical
means.
Time
travel has featured in too many movies to list, from A CONNECTICUT YANKEE AT
KING ARTHUR’S COURT (a musical based on the Mark Twain novel) to several
versions of THE TIME MACHINE to THE TERMINATOR. Not to mention the BACK TO THE
FUTURE series, PLANET OF THE APES etc…
ROD
TAYLOR in ‘The Time Machine’ (1960)
I’m a big
fan of 60s TV which produced at least three time-travel gems I’m aware of, two from
STAR TREK:
‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ (often
voted the best ever episode)
JOAN
COLLINS and WILLIAM SHATNER in The City
on the Edge of Forever’
and –
Carol might appreciate this, given the gun-theme of SHADOW SOLDIER – ‘Spectre of the Gun’ where the crew of 'The Enterprise' find
themselves caught in the middle of the Gunfight at the OK Corral;
and the
brilliant OUTER LIMITS episode ‘The Man
who was Never Born’ from 1963.
SHIRLEY
KIGHT and MARTIN LANDAU in ‘The Man who
was Never Born’
1963 also
saw the launch of the British TV series DR WHO, featuring a time-travelling
doctor, which is still running today.
WILLIAM
HARTNELL as the first DR. WHO
Reviews
of SHADOW SOLDIER:
‘C. K.
Crigger's second story about Boothenay Irons, time tripping gunsmith
extraordinaire, is just as exciting as the first. This book defies
categorization. Fantasy? Yes. Romance? Yes. Historical novel? Yes. Action
novel? Yes. Damned good read? You betcha. Will I be reading more C. K. Crigger
stories? Absolutely!’
‘I
would recommend this author to anyone.’
