William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass, a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements. He has published most of his fiction as William Tenn. Under this pseudonym, he wrote two novels and more than 60 short stories.
Of All Possible Worlds has the notable distinction of being the first time travel story to make it into a volume of Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the 50s and Beyond, although I am 100% certain it won’t be the last. This is a sci-fi trope close to my heart, as for the last few years I have been attempting to write a hard science time travel novel based on the many world’s hypothesis of time travel. This story by William Tenn takes a look at precisely two worlds that emerge from the bifurcation of a single event. In this case, the impact point of a nuclear missile test. Tenn’s story is very light-hearted with plenty of comedic elements that occur mainly through the dissonant repetition of events in the two different worlds that are persistently created and destroyed.
Here’s a five minute sample of my Audible Narration of this story:
The full version of this story is 30 minutes and 41 seconds long and is the 10th short story in Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the ’50s and Beyond Volume 2. Available now on Audible!