The Time Traveler's Almanac

Time travel stories move sharply in and out of vogue, but they have an enduring history in speculative fiction. The VanderMeers' latest giant anthology (after The Weird) does the genre a great service, reaching back through that history for classics as well as newer pieces readers might have missed. Standouts include Charles Stross's epic "Palimpsest", Connie Willis's stark portrayal of WWII England in "Fire Watch," and the delicious ambiguity of "Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters" by Alice Sola Kim. There is room for the wistful, courtesy of Michael Swanwick's "Triceratops Summer," and Genevieve Valentine's intermission feature "Trousseau" is half-practical and half-poetic. Every aspect of time is explored and shared, from whole multiverses being created and eliminated with hardly a thought, to the realization that the here and now can be the best thing there is. Agent: Sally Harding, The Cooke Agency. (Mar.)