Author:	Fred Saberhagen
Copyright:	1983
Date Reviewed:	11/25/84
Rating:	6.0

Synopsis: Alan Norlund is given a chance to save his dying granddaughter by helping a group of people from the future. Norlund is sent back in time to the 1934 Chicago World's Fair to place 'sensing' devices in two converging lines pointing to the fair. The task is almost completed when Norlund is captured by the enemy and his assistant, a working man from 1934, is sent into the future. Norlund, the assistant and others travel back and forward in time until the ultimate mission is revealed: kill Hitler during his 1934 visit to America. The mission fails.

Review: "A Century of Progress" is well written, paragraph by paragraph, but it lacks any semblance of a plot. The beginning of the story does little more than show one man's impression of the past and the succession of progress over the last 50 years. The book then rambles on up and down time until the mission is finally revealed 4/5 of the way through. That's a very long time to wait for a plot! The novel has time travel, alternate universes and alternate timelines (like "Worlds of the Imperium" and "Beyond the Imperium" by Keith Laumer) but they are never explained. These phenomenons are just assumed to exist. This book suffers from many of the same problems that plague "Timescape" by George Benford.