Crosstime Traffic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crosstime Traffic is a series of books by Harry Turtledove. The central premise of the stories is an Earth that has discovered access to alternate universes where history went differently. "Crosstime Traffic" is the name of the company with a global monopoly on the technology.

The background strongly resembles that of H. Beam Piper's Paratime series. One tribute paid is the names of the inventors of temporal transposition: Ghaldron and Hesthor in Piper, Galbraith and Hester in Turtledove. In both series the "home timeline" was running low on resources, and has used its knowledge of time to covertly import supplies from other Earths and save their civilization from collapse. The most important difference is the nature of the home timeline. Piper's world was inhabited by a culture which had been technologically advanced for thousands of years and was even more distantly related to our own. Turtledove's world, although set in the 2090s, resembles our 2000s, with modest general advances in technology plus the crosstime capability.

The books are young adult novels, frequently with teenage protagonists who become stranded in dangerous alternate worlds and must adapt to survive. Their adventures give them increased appreciation for the benefits of living in a civilized, high-tech society. While there is considerable violence, the language and plots are restricted by the intended audience. For instance, one book includes the prospect of an enslaved girl being sexually abused, but doesn't use the word "rape".

The current books in the series are:

• Gunpowder Empire (2003): The first book in the series, it involves a pair of siblings stranded during a siege of an outpost of a Roman Empire that never fell.
• Curious Notions (2004): The second book in the series is about a teenager and his father who are running an electronics store in San Francisco in a world where Imperial Germany reigns supreme following its victory in World War One.
• In High Places (2006): Takes place in a world where the Black Death killed four-fifths of Europe's population, and the Moors still occupy Spain and southern France, and the Industrial Revolution never happened.
• The Disunited States of America (2006): This book concerns a pair of teenagers, one from the Cross-time civilization, one a native, who meet in a Virginia where the United States fell apart, in a North America torn by war between numerous independent states. The working title for this book was The Untied States of America.
• The Gladiator (2007): This novel is set in a world dominated by the Soviet Union, after it won the Cold War in the late twentieth century. In Italy, two teenagers chafe under the deadening rule of communism— until they discover the existence of Crosstime Traffic through a strategy gaming shop which is not as it seems.
• The Valley-Westside War (2008): This will be the sixth book in the series, set in a world in which a nuclear war took place in 1967. It is scheduled to be released mid-2008.

[edit] External links

• Crosstime Traffic page on Official website.

v • d • e Works by Harry Turtledove
Videssos books	Videssos Cycle	The Misplaced Legion | An Emperor for the Legion | The Legion of Videssos | The Swords of the Legion
	The Tale of Krispos	Krispos Rising | Krispos of Videssos | Krispos the Emperor
	Time of Troubles	The Stolen Throne | Hammer and Anvil | The Thousand Cities | Videssos Besieged
		The Bridge of the Separator
The Race or Tosev timeline series	Worldwar Tetralogy	In the Balance | Tilting the Balance | Upsetting the Balance | Striking the Balance
	Colonization	Second Contact | Down to Earth | Aftershocks
		Homeward Bound
Southern Victory or Timeline-191		How Few Remain
	Great War Trilogy	American Front | Walk in Hell | Breakthroughs
	American Empire Trilogy	Blood and Iron | The Center Cannot Hold | The Victorious Opposition
	Settling Accounts Tetralogy	Return Engagement | Drive to the East | The Grapple | In at the Death
Darkness		Into the Darkness | Darkness Descending | Through the Darkness | Rulers of the Darkness | Jaws of the Darkness | Out of the Darkness
War Between the Provinces		Sentry Peak | Marching Through Peachtree | Advance and Retreat
Hellenic Traders		Over the Wine Dark Sea | The Gryphon's Skull | The Sacred Land | Owls to Athens
Crosstime Traffic		Gunpowder Empire | Curious Notions | In High Places | The Disunited States of America | The Gladiator | The Valley-Westside War
Pacific War Series		Days of Infamy | End of the Beginning
Scepter of Mercy		The Chernagor Pirates | The Bastard King | The Scepter's Return
Other, non-series books
Agent of Byzantium | A Different Flesh | Noninterference | Kaleidoscope | A World Of Difference | Earthgrip | The Guns of the South | The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump | Departures | Down in the Bottomlands | The Two Georges | Thessalonica | Between the Rivers | Justinian | Household Gods | Counting Up, Counting Down | Ruled Britannia | In the Presence of Mine Enemies | Conan of Venarium | Every Inch a King | Fort Pillow | Beyond the Gap | Opening Atlantis | The Battle of Teutoberg Forest