Tales of the Time Scouts

TWO NOVELS OF TIME-TRAVELING ADVENTURE. Includes Time Scout and Wagers of Sin.

When an experiment on an orbiting space station went wrong—bad wrong—ripples in time washed over the Earth bringing global disaster. The survivors, beginning to rebuild, learned that they were now able to travel into the past, utilizing the remnant time strings. But first, the time strings had to be mapped.

That was the job of the brave pioneers known as time scouts. Their occupation was only slightly less dangerous than front line combat, and when it was discovered that a time traveler who wasn’t extremely careful could zap himself out of existence, elaborate rules to prevent that evolved, and it was the job of the time scouts to enforce them. 

Time Scout:

Kenneth “Kit” Carson was one of the best, if not the best, time scouts in the business. But he has collected more than a few scars, both physical and mental, while poking around back in time, and trying not to draw the dangerous attention of the natives, not always successfully. Nowadays, he runs a small hotel at Time Terminal 86, and just wants to be a hotelier renting rooms to tourists on their way to see the Roman Circus Maximus or Victorian London firsthand . . . until a cartain red-headed girl flounces out of his life through an illicit gate that may collapse and leave her lost eternally in the corridors of time . . . 

Wagers of Sin:

Time Travel stations have become big business, with wealthy tourists taking vacations back in time. For Skeeter Jackson, one of Time Terminal 86’s least honest residents, scamming those tourists is a way of life. A man’s got to follow his calling, even a con man, and Skeeter might be a dyed-in-the-wool thieving scoundrel, but he freely admits it and relishes the crisp, cool feel of cash in hand—until one of his scams went terribly wrong, and he was in more trouble than even his quick wits and crooked tricks could get him out of again.
 
About Time Scout:

“Engaging, fast moving, historically literate, and filled with Asprin's expertise on the techniques and philosophy of personal combat, this is first-class action sf.” —Booklist