THE TIME SNATCHER

Episode #354 · Randall Garrett · Narrated by Scott Miller

A convicted time criminal has escaped into the nineteenth century with a calculated objective: seize a silver strike decades before its discovery and use that wealth to alter the future beyond recovery. The Time Patrol cannot allow it. Brek Halliday is dispatched into a frontier town of dust, suspicion, and drawn guns, where the rules of survival are simpler than the rules of time—but no less deadly.

This is not a distant pursuit. The fugitive has taken Dori Clayton with him, and Brek’s mission carries a personal urgency he cannot afford to show. To reach her, he must pass as a local, earn the trust of a calculating banker who may already suspect him, and navigate a growing private army guarding a mountain estate. Every move must appear ordinary. Every act must avoid rippling the timeline beyond repair.

Garrett sets advanced chronokinetic science against saloons and silver mines, creating a tense collision between futuristic restraint and Old West immediacy. Brek cannot simply overpower his enemy; he must infiltrate, endure, and strike at precisely the right moment. A single misstep could anchor the altered history in place, leaving the future unreachable.

As the pressure tightens, the conflict narrows to a single house on a mountain and the woman inside it. What Brek finds there forces him to confront more than a criminal—it forces him to face what time can erase and what it might restore.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randall Garrett (1927–1987) published extensively in Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy, and If during the 1950s and 1960s, often writing high-concept adventures grounded in logical extrapolation. He later gained lasting recognition for the Lord Darcy series, which fused alternate history with detective fiction, and collaborated with authors such as Robert Silverberg under shared pseudonyms. Garrett’s work frequently examined how technical knowledge—introduced at the wrong historical moment—could destabilize established power structures. “The Time Snatcher” reflects that fascination, placing speculative time mechanics inside a tightly constructed Western framework and driving the narrative toward a decisive confrontation.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Time Snatcher by Randall Garrett — a gripping classic science fiction showdown where a Time Patrolman must stop a fugitive from rewriting the past.

LOST SCI-FI PREMIUM

ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 42 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 4.2 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

What listeners are saying:

★★★★★ “I subscribe to probably more than 40 podcasts and several of them are Sci-Fi. This one is the one that brings a smile when I see it pop up in my feed and my only fear is you will run out of material. I bet I join a lot of others playing the game of what did they guess right and wrong about the future.”
— Someone

★★★★★ “Fantastic. Quickly becoming one of my favourite podcasts. I’m especially liking the daily releases at the moment.”
— Matsp1

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.

📬 JOIN LOST SCI-FI WEEKLY

35,000+ Listeners Can’t Be Wrong

Get vintage sci-fi stories, podcast episodes, and surprises every Monday.

FREE SCI-FI EVERY WEEK

✅ Check your email and confirm — that unlocks your free sci-fi downloads.

No spam in this galaxy. You can eject anytime.