Synopsis
Conger is a hunter, sent back in time to 1960 to hunt and kill a man in order to change history.
History
First publication: If, September 1952
Review
From today’s perspective this story is a very common subject, a time paradox. That’s kind of ironic that over time this idea would become commonplace, but in the past it was new. I’m not sure how many time paradox stories were written before this. Not a whole lot of them I think. Just a small number. But very many have been written since.
This one isn’t a clever and unique paradox today, but it has an added theme. This was written when the Cold War was really getting going. The United States was being swept with a paranoia about Communism. So when this man from the future shows up in a small Colorado town at a time when the whole nation was being whipped into a frenzy over the Communist threat, that man is thought to be a Communist infiltrater and spy because he is different. An outsider. They think he has a lot of bombs with him.
There is the point of this story. Its the plight of the stranger, being feared and being hated because he is different. Yet he does cause a change to start.This is a Top Tale, very good and worth the time to read.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
Paycheck and Other Classic Stories, trade paperback, Citadel/Kensington, 2003-09-00
