 First edition cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon | |
| Author | John Brunner |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Ace Books |
Publication date | 1971 (first edition) |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 175 (first edition) |
| ISBN | 0-441-82211-8 |
The Traveler in Black is a 1971 collection of fantasy short stories, written by John Brunner and dealing with the Traveler of the title. The first edition had four stories ("Imprint of Chaos", "Break the Door of Hell", "The Wager Lost by Winning", and "The Dread Empire") and was issued in 1971 in the Ace Science Fiction Specials line.[1] A subsequent 1986 edition contained an additional story, "The Things That Are Gods", and was titled The Compleat Traveler in Black.
The series deals with an unnamed protagonist, who "has many names but only one nature" and who bears a staff of curdled light, traveling through a landscape in which Order and Chaos conflict. With this, and with the powers vested in him by "the One for whom all things are neither possible nor impossible", he can counter Chaos. However, he must do so in answer to the spoken wishes of the people around him, always with consequences they had not intended and often to their detriment. For example, the Traveler hears the wish of a skilled assassin that he could get the fame to which his expertise should entitle him. Are not all great artists admired and respected? Is he not the cunningest hand with dagger, garotte, and subtle poison? The Traveler replies, as usual, "As you wish, so be it." The following morning, the Traveler finds the assassin's body on a dunghill: his crimes have been discovered and properly attributed to him, and he has received the execution the law prescribes.
Among the Traveler's powers is the ability to bind and free Elementals, which in these tales are varied and more than five in number. The Traveler's ultimate purpose is to reduce the power of Chaos, and thus the utility of magic, until everything should have a single nature. As he works, person after person, city after city, move from Chaos into the realm of Order, and thus from Eternity into Time.
- ^ The Traveler in Black, John Brunner. Ace, 1971, ISBN 0-441-82211-8. (copyright information)