Time in Advance

Originally published in the August 1956 issue of GALAXY, this novelette shows William Tenn (pseudonym for Phillip Klass) at the peak of his career in science fiction. Sardonic, profoundly disillusioned and fashioned in the form of a classic deductive mystery, the work was enormously influential and its central plot premise has been appropriated by others over many decades. Original to science fiction—perhaps to the entire body of literature—is the concept of penal terms served "in escrow"; a prospective felon is permitted to do the crime before committing the crime and for the service is granted on completion a get-out-of-jail free card. (Obviously those wishing to commit murder must serve more time in escrow than prospective thieves or embezzlers.) Tenn's protagonist commits himself to a long term of penal servitude on a hellish planet in order that he may have the opportunity to wreak revenge upon the business partner who has betrayed him. As one of the relatively few who serve such a severe sentence in advance for a severe crime who survives, he emerges prepared to use his promissory note. What he learns however is that there are many levels of crime, many kinds of betrayal and much which is only apparently real. Written with deadpan, ungiving ferocity, TIME IN ADVANCE shows Tenn at a point where he had perfected his style toward apparent (but only apparent) effortlessness.