THE YEAR OF THE RANSOM

History again preserved by Anderson's ""Time Patrol."" Stephen Tamberly, field historian of the Time Patrol, is routinely recording the images of the great Inca treasure gathered to ransom a 16th-century Inca king from Pizzaro when time bandits appear and kidnap both Stephen and his conquistador companion, Castelar. Castelar rescues them both; but when he learns about time travel, he forces Stephen to reveal its secrets--plus the name of Stephen's favorite niece Wanda, who lives in the 20th century. Although Castelar forces Wanda to shelter him while he gathers weapons for an assault on the past to preserve Spanish domination, her quick thinking enables the Time Patrol to stop Castelar before he can alter history. During the 40 years that Anderson has been writing SF, he has honed his storytelling skills; here, he skillfully mixes history, romance, and adventure with a fine dash of paradox averted. The language is vintage Anderson: often entertaining, sometimes distractingly overblown (""My Adidases whisper on dark lava, in simmering silence""). Still, this is one of the better efforts in Walker's Millenium series.