8.6 /10 1 Votes8.6
5/5 Risingshadow Language English Pages 175 Originally published February 1973 Page count 175 | 3.7/5 Goodreads Country United Kingdom Publication date February 1973 ISBN 978-0-87997-043-7 Genre Science Fiction Cover artist Christopher F. Foss | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Collision Course (a.k.a. Collision with Chronos) is the fourth novel by the science fiction author Barrington J. Bayley. The novel was inspired by the multiple time dimensions proposed by J. W. Dunne. The plot centers on the collision of two alternate "presents", with disastrous implications for reality.
Literary significance and reception
Rhys Hughes, in his review of Bayley's work, ranked the novel as Bayley's third-best but still the most original time paradox story in modern SF, noting that, for the first time, Bayley's novels had reached the high standards of his short stories.
John Clute described Collision Course, along with Empire of Two Worlds and Annihilation Factor, as "variously successful" but held that The Fall of Chronopolis was Bayley's most fully realised time travel story.
Reviewing the novel in Vector, Brian Stableford criticised Bayley's tendency to arbitrarily switch between viewpoints but concluded that "[y]ou will find it a rewarding experience."
In 1990, Collision Course won the Japanese Seiun Award for best translated novel.