Pilgrim

Pilgrim #1,2

by Fred Saberhagen

Tom Scheffler and Jerry Flint find themselves fighting for their lives millennia before they are to be born when a mysterious, looting time traveler known only as Pilgrim seeks to change the course of history for his own ends. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel

544 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Fred Saberhagen was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his ''Beserker'' and Dracula stories.

Saberhagen also wrote a series of a series of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels beginning with his popular ''Empire of the East'' and continuing through a long series of ''Swords'' and ''Lost Swords'' novels. Saberhagen died of cancer, in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Saberhagen was born in and grew up in the area of Chicago, Illinois. Saberhagen served in the [[U.S. Air Force]] during the Korean War while he was in his early twenties. Back in civilian life, Saberhagen worked as an It was while he was working for Motorola (after his military service) that Saberhagen started writing fiction seriously at the age of about 30. "Fortress Ship", his first "Berserker" short shory, was published in 1963. Then, in 1964, Saberhagen saw the publication of his first novel, ''The Golden People''.

From 1967 to 1973, he worked as an editor for the Chemistry articles in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as well as writing its article on science fiction. He then quit and took up writing full-time. In 1975, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He married fellow writer Joan Spicci in 1968. They had two sons and a daughter.

Reviews

[Xander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fred Saberhagen wrote a number of books about magic swords that I adore and will reread every decade or so until I die. He also wrote a novel about Sherlock Holmes and Dracula that I remember being fun. So I read this book because I trust the late FS. But that turns out to be the only reason to read it.

The characters are wooden. The plots make almost no sense. Most of the descriptions of female characters contain the phrase "not bad looking", and those characters are only there as forced love interests. The second part of this book is about Washington DC in 1865, so it makes sense that there would be several Black characters. But why are they the only ones who speak in dialect? So many problems.

This book gets 2⭐ because 1) my rating rules say that a 1⭐ is for books I couldn't finish, and 2) I did find some of the historical tie-ins from American politics (e.g., the appearance of Lafayette C. Baker) to be entertaining.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent tale of Peregrinus. This is the first novel by Saberhagen that I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it to science fiction fans.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This particular book contained two Science Fiction novels (pubished separately elsewhere) featuring a strange fellow who uses the psuedonym "Pilgrim" (among others) who is something of a time manipulator-- which is almost a time traveler.

Saberhagen's first offering is called "Pyramids" and features an adventure to ancient Egypt. There is an interesting cast of characters, but the conclusion was far too surreal for me. I can't go into better detail because it would provide spoilers and I don't want to ruin it for those who like the surreal frosting on their literary cake.

The second offering in the book was "After the Fact." In this book we get a great time travel adventure as Pilgrim manipulates (kidnaps?) a college student and sends him to 1865 America with the mission to save Abraham Lincoln from assasination. He assures the student that it will not create a paradox and we see Pilgrim's chicanery while the student struggles to remain alive, get to Ford's Theater, and stop Booth from killing Lincoln. The conclusion is interesting, but Saberhagen's reasoning for the mission's purpose is bewildering and murky, at best. Still, we get a fine time traveller story with a clever conclusion.

[R Moltzon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars overall. I picked this up as a used book to find it was printed in 1999 and the stories were written in 1987. It consisted of two novels the first introducing Pilgrim, a time traveler traveler trying to get back to his home planet, but stranded with his ship in ancient Egypt. Pilgrim utilized 20th century characters to help him find gold in Egypt that can power his stranded ship. The first novel was interesting but has a bizarre ending which spoiled what up to that point was a good read. The second novel has Pilgrim enlisting another 20th century character to attempt to prevent the assassination of Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. The second was much better paced than the first and had an ending that was appropriate to the plot. Hence the ratings of 4 on the second 2.5 on the first.