Project Mastodon

Project Mastodon

By

3
(3 Reviews)
Project Mastodon by Clifford Donald Simak

Published:

1955

Pages:

51

Downloads:

4,099

Share This

Project Mastodon

By

3
(3 Reviews)
This story was first published in March 1955 Galaxy and the etext was produced from the anthology "All the Traps of Earth and other stories". Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

Book Excerpt

Read More

Readers reviews

5
4
3
2
1
3.0
Average from 3 Reviews
3
Write Review
Such a good premise, and some fairly good writing. But, the author blows it with a horribly unsatisfying ending.

Basically, yet-another-time-travel-story. However, it was done well enough to keep it interesting until the crash and burn ending.
A guy showed up in Washington trying to get diplomatic recognition for a new nation he represented. His explanations went in circles or were simply nonsensical, and he got the brush-off. After he disappears, the military suddenly wants to talk to him again, because it appears his nation is only far away in time. But as it turns out, that can be very far away indeed.

Pretty much stock characters and a magical time machine working on rescuing three guys trapped in the past.
3
An interesting variation on the standard time-machine theme. No loops encountered. The short story is tersely written and the end, when technicalities clear, abrupt. This makes it an early example of hard SF with a time machine, worth a read.