APPEL, Allen (R.)

(1945-)

   US writer whose Alex Balfour TIME-TRAVEL sequence - Time after Time (1985), Twice Upon a Time (1988) and Till the End of Time (1990) - hovers, as do so many tales of this sort, between sf and fantasy. The protagonist's visits, first to the Russian Revolution, then to the time of Mark Twain and General Custer, and finally to Hiroshima, are without sf explanation; but Balfour's opportunity to intervene in the 1945 catastrophe engages him potentially in the sort of time-track manipulation generally conceded to be an sf trope. What distinguishes the books from many others is their intense focus on the ethical dilemmas that must face any adult protagonist given the chance to manipulate time-tracks, to kill a butterfly and change the world.