City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis by John C. Wright is a loosely connected set of short stories about time travel and the city of Metachronopolis, which exists outside of time as we understand it and is ruled by the Time Wardens, who despite their name, are portrayed more as amoral monsters than as law-givers.
Short stories
- "Murder in Metachronopolis"
- "Choosers of the Slain"
- "Bride of the Time Warden"
- "Father's Monument"
- "Slayer of Souls"
- "The Plural of Helen of Troy"
This book provides examples of:
- Brown Note: Merely reading a few sentences of the book of the slayer of souls attunes the reader’s thoughts to the slayer’s, allowing it to track and sometimes control the victim.
- Fate Worse than Death: An innocent cab driver is consumed by the Soul Eater in "Slayer of Souls." His fate is described as a permanent coma where his brain lives on in an insanity of terror.
- Grandfather Paradox: The Time Wardens can do this to erase any potential enemies. They avoid it themselves by finding timelines where they still exist and rooting themselves in those. However, if their continued existence becomes too unlikely, they start having problems.
- Hardboiled Detective: Jake Frontino, the protagonist in the first & last short story of the book, is a private investigator from the early twentieth century brought to Metachronopolis by the Time Wardens.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Described as "hardened memory," some humans have the ability to remember timelines which have been eliminated by a time traveler. (Why they have this ability is never explained.) This ability is prized by the Time Wardens, who will often recruit such a person.
