"The Time Hoppers" Robert Silverberg

The first sign of invasion from the future came about the year 1979, when several men in strange costumes appeared in the district of Appalachia then known as Manhattan.  Records show they appeared with increasing in frequency throughout the decade, and when interrogated all ultimately admitted that they had come from the future.  The pressure of repeated evidence eventually forced the people of the Twentieth Century to accept the disturbing conclusion that they were in truth being subjected to a peaceful but annoying invasion by time-travellers [sic].  

Front-cover blurb on the Belmont Tower Books 1967 edition of "The Time Hoppers"

I like a little pulp fiction every once in a while.  While technically not pulp fiction in the sense that is not a pulp magazine in the 1930s or 40s but rather a novel published in the 1960s, it is still "fantastic, escapist fiction for the general entertainment of the mass audiences." *  I paid 50 cents for this book at the Planned Parenthood book sale in 2012, so the book retained its value pretty well since it sold for 95 cents in 1967.

I read the blurb above when I bought the book and assumed that it was about the reactions of New Yorkers in the 20th Century to an invasion of "time-travellers."  Well, the blurb must of been written by someone who had not read the book.  The story is set in the late 25th Century in the eastern half of the United States, where the big issues are overpopulation, unemployment, rationing of goods and a strict class system that seems to be controlled by computer programs.  People are traveling to invade the past, but the story is about the people in the unpleasant world of 2487.

This science fiction cum police procedural starts with the story of Quellen, the CrimeSec, who must find the man who is sending people back in time, but his job is complicated because he can't stop anyone who was supposed to go back in time from going because that might disrupt the current time stream.  There are records of the known time-hoppers, but most likely not all were discovered and many gave false names in the past. 

Silverberg is not so big on action and writes more about the human condition.  He explores a how people react to crowding and increased mechanization by introducing us to the people in Quellen's world.  Quellen is level 7, but his sister is level 14, a class that has few privileges and lives in crowded housing.  Unemployment is rampant and his brother-in-law is out of a job even though he is highly skilled as a doctor. His girlfriend is a member of a cult with very unusual rites.  The class structure is further explained by looking at the chain of command at the Crime Secretariat office.  Everyone wants something they don't have:  privacy, solitude, employment, upward mobility, room, purpose.  And traveling to the past is a way to find these things.

I have to read Silverberg occasionally out of nostalgia.  I was introduced to his writing by a college friend, and I vividly remember the first book I read.  At the time I was both shocked and informed by the sexual content of the book, and even though we might now consider the dilemmas of the characters simple and well-worn, I can still reminisce about pondering those questions when I was younger.  For this member of the masses, it was escapist reading.

* "What is pulp fiction?" at The Vintage Library.