Rating: 
Summary: Parallel Worlds, Time Travel, Reincarnation, High Adventure
Review: H. Beam Piper was obsessed with reincarnation, time travel, and alternate worlds. He capitalized on that obsession by writing the Paratime stories, a loosely knit series of novelettes. Verkan Vall, of the Paratime Police, served as the central character of most of the Paratime stories, and he made a capable, likeable hero. The best of the Paratime stories centered around another hero, Cpl. Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police. Morrison figured in three short stories, "Gunpowder God," "Down Styphon," and a third unpublished story. The three were posthumously conjoined to form the novella "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen." The stories in which Cpl. Morrison takes no part were collected in "Paratime." The present book contains both "Paratime" and "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen." It also contains a very interesting prologue in which John F. Carr discusses Piper's ideas on time travel, alternate worlds, and reincarnation. He offers Piper's firm belief in reincarnation as a possible explanation for Piper's suicide.
Rating:
Summary: Parallel Worlds, Time Travel, Reincarnation, High Adventure
Review: H. Beam Piper was obsessed with reincarnation, time travel, and alternate worlds. He capitalized on that obsession by writing the Paratime stories, a loosely knit series of novelettes. Verkan Vall, of the Paratime Police, served as the central character of most of the Paratime stories, and he made a capable, likeable hero. The best of the Paratime stories centered around another hero, Cpl. Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police. Morrison figured in three short stories, "Gunpowder God," "Down Styphon," and a third unpublished story. The three were posthumously conjoined to form the novella "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen." The stories in which Cpl. Morrison takes no part were collected in "Paratime." The present book contains both "Paratime" and "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen." It also contains a very interesting prologue in which John F. Carr discusses Piper's ideas on time travel, alternate worlds, and reincarnation. He offers Piper's firm belief in reincarnation as a possible explanation for Piper's suicide.
Rating: 
Summary: Cross-time Travelers Police Parallel Worlds
Review: H. Beam Piper's Paratime stories, first published between 1948 and 1965 and culminating in his novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, chronicle the efforts of a human civilization from a parallel world which has discovered the secret of cross-time travel to protect the "Paratime Secret," the very existence of the multitude of parallel worlds. As the Paratime Police protect the Secret they also make it possible for this "First Level" civilization to exploit the parallel worlds, something they have been doing for the past 10,000 years! Naturally, much of the adventure takes place on Fourth Level, Europo-American Sector, Hispano-Columbian Subsector--our own place in the multiverse. Piper's novel traces the exploits of Calvin Morrison, a Pennsylvania state trooper who is mistakenly transported to a parallel world of musket and pike warfare and a theocracy based upon the secret of gunpowder. Morrison becomes "Lord Kalvan" as he helps a local prince--and his lovely daughter--to combat the gunpowder god's minions. While billed as "complete" this compilation, which consists of the Kalvan novel and Piper's stories previously collected in the 1981 anthology Paratime edited by John F. Carr omits two other possible Paratime stories, "Genesis" and "Crossroads of Destiny" which appeared in the 1983 anthology The Worlds of H. Beam Piper also edited by Carr. Two authorized sequels to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, 1985's Great Kings' War by Roland Green and John F. Carr, and Kalvan Kingmaker by Carr just published in 2001, are also not included. Also recommended: Four-Day Planet (1961), Uller Uprising (1952), The Cosmic Computer (1958), Space Viking (1962), Federation (1981), and Empire (1981).
Rating:
Summary: A classic tale of time travel and parallel universes
Review: H. Beam Piper,in this collection of stories, provides insight into a society that can leverage the resources from a near infinite number of worlds and the awesome responsibility that entails. The Paratime police force is tasked with monitoring the vast number of parallel worlds, many of which have had history take a different path then in ours. Verkan Vall, one of the Paratime officers, deals with criminals intent on exploiting less advanced civilizations and the problems with civilizations more advanced then his own, while keeping the secret of paratime travel safe. The longest story in this collection, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, describes the fate of a man from our 20th century Earth who is dropped accidentally into a parallel universe where different population migration patterns have resulted in a drastically different world. Coming into a world centuries behind his own, Calvin Morrison, once of the Pennsylvania State Police, ends up leading the beleagured nation of Hostigos against the corrupt theocracy that holds a monopoly on technology. Another story in this collection include: "He Walked around the Horses," which offers a possible explanation on the disapperance of Benjamin Bathurst, a diplomat in Napoleonic Europe. There are several other well paced stories in this collection. Most of the parallel worlds are described in tantalizingly little detail allowing the reader to imagine what other alternatives could be. If you like parallel world fiction, you'll get your fill with this collection.
Rating:
Summary: The Master of Parallel Time
Review: If you've ever wondered how (or if) you could survive in a late medieval society, Lord Kalvin is for you. It chronicles the adventures of a Pennsylvania State Trooper who is carried across timelines to an alternate reality where North America is a land of feudal princes and castles. The Paratime short stories all build up to Lord Kalvin and show a much greater variety of parallel worlds than has been writen about in the last 30 years. Even though Piper is dead and gone, his work is still alive, in the hands of author John Carr. He's just released his second 'Lord Kalvin' novel; "Kalvin Kingmaker" and it can be found out at hostigos.com. His first Kalvin sequel is out of print, though it is available online from various bookstores. "The Complete Paratime is IMHO the definative work on parallel time and alternate worlds.
Rating:
Summary: A True Science Fiction Classic
Review: It's been said many times, but this is one of the early great books regarding parallel worlds and time. Essential to the history of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back, Paratime Police
Review: Piper's Paratime stories are great action adventure yarns with admirable lead characters and satisfying solutions. Each story is enjoyable in its own right, but having them all collected together will also allow the reader to enjoy them in the context of H. Beam Piper's "big picture", the society that discovered infinite probability worlds, and now exploits and protects them with its Paratime Police. The pinnacle of the Paratime stories is "Lord Kalvan Of Otherwhen" wherein a contemporary character is accidentally transported by the Paratime Police to a pike and musket society. He doesn't just survive, but lives a fuller and more important life than was possible before his "accident". Kalvan's adventures are continued in "Great King's War" and the just published "Kalvan Kingmaker", both written true to Piper by John F. Carr. Kudos to Ace for bringing all the original Piper stories together in one book.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back, Paratime Police
Review: Piper's Paratime stories are great action adventure yarns with admirable lead characters and satisfying solutions. Each story is enjoyable in its own right, but having them all collected together will also allow the reader to enjoy them in the context of H. Beam Piper's "big picture", the society that discovered infinite probability worlds, and now exploits and protects them with its Paratime Police. The pinnacle of the Paratime stories is "Lord Kalvan Of Otherwhen" wherein a contemporary character is accidentally transported by the Paratime Police to a pike and musket society. He doesn't just survive, but lives a fuller and more important life than was possible before his "accident". Kalvan's adventures are continued in "Great King's War" and the just published "Kalvan Kingmaker", both written true to Piper by John F. Carr. Kudos to Ace for bringing all the original Piper stories together in one book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good adventures but a dated style
Review: The Paratime Police ride herd on a sheaf of parallel worlds. Run from the "First Level" (the only one to discover Paratime), they monitor the polite exploitation of the lower (Second through Fifth) levels and ensure that no one is trying to change or control history inappropriately, and that none of the parallel histories on the other levels learns about Paratime. Verkan Vall is our hero, a Heinleinesque master of all trades who is the lead troubleshooter for the Paratime cops and who is the first to get sent in whenever there's a problem. In the first story in the Paratime series, he deals with an animal that's been carted crosstime and is creating havoc in a world similar to our own. (It's clear that we're one of these parallel worlds, but we're definitely not First-Level.) In others, he deals with a First Leveler who is advancing a lower-level's science a bit too much, slavers who are trading cross-time, and other such crises. Actually, the first story in the book predates the Paratime ones and focuses on a diplomat somehow exchanged from our world into a world where Napoleon never took power. The resulting confusion is expressed in a series of diplomatic letters from those who found him and the powers-that-be. It actually may be the best of the lot. These are pretty good adventure stories but in style and narration are definitely pre-modern. Piper's attitude toward women is not the best, though he does have a strong (if too often silly) female character. There's also too many expository blurbs of the "explain to me what I should already know" variety.
Still, the stories are interesting, and they show a remarkable imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Good adventures but a dated style
Review: The Paratime Police ride herd on a sheaf of parallel worlds. Run from the "First Level" (the only one to discover Paratime), they monitor the polite exploitation of the lower (Second through Fifth) levels and ensure that no one is trying to change or control history inappropriately, and that none of the parallel histories on the other levels learns about Paratime. Verkan Vall is our hero, a Heinleinesque master of all trades who is the lead troubleshooter for the Paratime cops and who is the first to get sent in whenever there's a problem. In the first story in the Paratime series, he deals with an animal that's been carted crosstime and is creating havoc in a world similar to our own. (It's clear that we're one of these parallel worlds, but we're definitely not First-Level.) In others, he deals with a First Leveler who is advancing a lower-level's science a bit too much, slavers who are trading cross-time, and other such crises. Actually, the first story in the book predates the Paratime ones and focuses on a diplomat somehow exchanged from our world into a world where Napoleon never took power. The resulting confusion is expressed in a series of diplomatic letters from those who found him and the powers-that-be. It actually may be the best of the lot. These are pretty good adventure stories but in style and narration are definitely pre-modern. Piper's attitude toward women is not the best, though he does have a strong (if too often silly) female character. There's also too many expository blurbs of the "explain to me what I should already know" variety.
Still, the stories are interesting, and they show a remarkable imagination.
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