Time Patrol

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Time Patrol is a series of works, mostly short stories, by Poul Anderson. They take place in a universe where the resolution to the Grandfather Paradox is that you now exist without ever having had a father, and the Time Police relentlessly works to keep time nevertheless on the same path -- while ruthlessly expurgating futures, filled with living beings, that do not conform to it. Doing this often requires the sacrifice of time travelers or those they love.


The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Time Patrol franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.