She was a soft-spoken, dark-haired, small-boned woman, not even coming up to their shoulders, like a kind of dwarf or miniature—but that was normal enough for a Mediterranean Greek of nearly four millennia ago, before super-diets and hybridization from seventy colonized planets had turned all humanity (so she had been told) into Scandinavian giants. The young lieutenant, who was two meters and a third tall, or three heads more than herself, very handsome and ebony-skinned, said ‘I'm sorry, ma'am, but I cannot believe you're the proper Trans-Temporal Agent; I think—‘ and he finished his thought on the floor, his head under one of his ankles and this slight young woman (or was she young? Trans-Temp did such strange things sometimes!) somehow holding him down in a position he could not get out of without hurting himself to excruciation.

The first two stories are about an assassin and thief called Alyx who lives in a city in the ancient world, while the third story, if it is about the same woman, may be set earlier in her life although this is not clear. The Alyx of the fourth story is a Trans-Temporal Agent who is sent through a portal to rescue a group of future tourists trapped when war breaks out on a tourist planet. The final story told from the point of view of a teenage girl in prohibition era America whose family has a exceptionally tall paying guest staying with them while she is hiding out in the past. The links between the stories in this book become a lot clearer when the visitor tells her hosts' daughter that her great-grandmother became the first ever Trans-Temporal Agent after being accidentally scooped up in Ancient Greece during a time travel experiment.

My favourites were "I Thought She Was Afeard Till She Stroked My Beard" and "The Second Inquisition".

At the meet-up.

Picked up from the shelves at the monthly meeting at Divine Coffee House, at the Ministries of Justice. Looked interesting as I like Sci Fi short story collections.

To be taken to the monthly meeting at CoffeeLink in Ipswich. If not taken it will be left on the shelves.