Counting Up, Counting Down

Counting Up, Counting Down is a collection of

A 40-year-old computer genius named Justin Kloster invents a time machine based on string theory and virtual reality. Using this device, he travels back in time to visit himself when he was 21. It was at this age that he began dating his future wife, who would later divorce him. As Justin has never recuperated from his loss, he decides that this time machine is his chance to redo his relationship with her with more success. As such, he convinces his younger self to lie low while his older self courts his girlfriend. Unfortunately for Justin's plan, he finds that his older self is even less successful than his younger counterpart, and his girlfriend leaves him, much sooner than she did in the original timeline. The older Justin decides to head back to his own time in the future, leaving a large sum of money behind. When he awakes in his original time, he discovers that he has successfully founded his own string-theory company, and is happily married to another woman and has two sons. He attributes this to his original relationship not becoming as serious, as well as inspiring his younger self and providing him with seed-money to start his own business.

"Must and Shall"

On July 12, 1864, while the United States is being torn apart by the Great Rebellion, President Abraham Lincoln is killed by a sharpshooter at Fort Stevens while inspecting the ramparts.^[1]

Meanwhile,

When the

77 years later, the South is still under Union military occupation. However, on August 11, 1942, a

In his

The title comes from a quote attributed to antebellum President Andrew Jackson, "The Union must and shall be preserved," referenced in the story.

The story would later be reprinted in Turtledove's short-story collection The Best of Harry Turtledove in 2021.

"Ready for the Fatherland"

On February 19, 1943,

Most of the 1979 scenes take place in Rijeka. Turtledove explains that his wife's visit to that city inspired him to set a story there.

"The Phantom Tolbukhin"

The

After answering the foreman's question about Paul de Man intelligently, the young man is hired, starting the next day. He goes home, notifies his fiancée, who is pleased, and goes to bed early. On his first day, he is assigned to Gang 4 and sent to work on Durant Street. He soon proves himself quite capable of applying deconstruction principles to road work. By the end of the day, the young doctor is truly part of the gang and has accomplished a great deal of work on Durant Street.

The story is told in a second-person narrative. Thus, the identity of the young deconstructionist is not revealed.

"The Green Buffalo"

The story is narrated by Joe, a general store keeper in

This story is Turtledove's pastiche of "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. It follows the same basic plot of Hammett's novel, only it is in short story form and the MacGuffin is a living, breathing elephant rather than a falcon statue.^[4]

"Vermin"

On a distant planet in the far future, there are two human settlements. One comprises a particularly-repressive sect of fundamentalist Christian luddites, who forbid most discussions and practices of sex; the other comprises free-thinking enlightened scientists. There is also a sentient semi-humanoid native life form with unusual reproductive procedures and a louse-like parasite, which infests all alike. Both human groups seek to interfere with the parasite's ecological function, with ironic results.

"Ils ne passeront pas"

During the Battle of Verdun in 1916, two French soldiers witness the seven trumpets of the Book of Revelation descending onto the battlefield. Assuming that they are newfangled German weapons and that their own senses are addled by poison gas, they blast away the supernatural creatures with nary a second thought.

"In This Season"

Shortly into World War II, three Jewish families (the Friedman, Geller and Korczak Families) in

Turtledove explains that the story was written as the sole Chanukah entry in a book of Christmas stories.

"Honeymouth"

In this spoof of