looking for an alternate history in which I know the answer

July 8, 2007 10:24 AM

In Jack Williamson's "Legion of Time", what are the two objects that John Barr had to choose between?

A "Jonbar Hinge" is the moment in an alternate history when the world diverges from our own, and the name comes from a Jack Williamson story in which John Barr picks up one of two objects - one eventually leads to a utopian civilisation, and the other leads to a dystopia.

This is what Wikipedia tells me - but what were the two objects that John Barr chose between? Googling, Wikipedia, and Amazon-look-inside-this-book don't tell me, and nor does the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction.

posted by siskin to writing & language (2 comments total)

I found a Google groups post that says that the two objects are a magnet and a pebble. The book description on this Amazon listing says the same thing.
posted by Siobhan at 10:46 AM on July 8, 2007

Thank you!
posted by siskin at 11:08 AM on July 8, 2007