Great Work of Time first appeared in John Crowley’s 1989 collection, Novelty.

Great Work of Time is a “chronicle” composed of several narrative threads. Among the characters who populate its various worlds and timelines are Caspar Last, an inventor who seeks his fortune in the distant past; Denys Winterset, a young, unformed civil servant willing to do his bit for the British Empire; and Cecil Rhodes, who dreamed of extending that empire into the distant future. Dominating the narrative are the machinations of The Otherhood, a group of British patriots who will use Caspar Last’s discoveries to correct—or at least mitigate—the many mistakes of history. Their story is one of noble intentions and unintended consequences played out on the grandest possible scale.