''Palimpsest'' is a 2009 science fiction novella by

Charles Stross Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine '' ...

, exploring the conjunction of

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

and deep time. Originally published in Stross's 2009 collection ''Wireless'', it won the 2010

Hugo Award for Best Novella The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between ...

. Subterranean Press has announced that they will be reprinting the novella separately in 2011.

Inspiration

Stross has stated that ''Palimpsest'' is effectively a rewrite of ''

The End of Eternity ''The End of Eternity'' is a 1955 science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov with mystery and thriller elements on the subjects of time travel and social engineering. Its premise is that of a causal loop, a type of temporal paradox in which event ...

'', by Isaac Asimov."Last time I did this, I Lied"
at Stross's official blog; "If you could re-write one sci-fi (or fantasy) classic, which one would you choose, and why?" "for what it's worth, I've already done it a couple of times, deliberately or accidentally. (I didn't re-read "The End of Eternity" before writing Palimpsest, for example)"; posted 12 April 2011; retrieved 29 May 2011

Plot

Pierce is a police officer with the Stasis, a special institution dedicated to the preservation of humanity by its agents who are able to travel through time. After every extinction event resulting in humanity's end, the Stasis reseeds Earth with a replacement group of humans time-jumped from an earlier era. However, the Opposition, an organisation that seems to struggle against the Stasis, has been created over time, and it seems that Pierce is somehow tied to it.

References

Hugo Award for Best Novella winning works 2009 British novels 2011 British novels Novels by Charles Stross Novels about time travel British novellas Subterranean Press books {{2000s-sf-novel-stub