Book 4

Old Man Suddard: Molten Swamp



Written in 1990, this novel by Shay Mcorrick focuses on a non canon version of Suddard and introduces the concept of time travel to the Suddard franchise. It was heavily influenced by other science fiction of that era and won an award for chapter 3 in which Old Man Suddard gave an extremely detailed account of chaos theory and it’s ties to the butterfly effect.



Synopsis

The year is 1960. Old Man Suddard is living in a swamp in the outskirts of the small town of Richmond. One night whilst out lynching, Suddard is startled by the appearance of a man claiming to be from the year 2060. The man tells him that Suddard must not kill teenager, Franky Cordoza or it will have great consequences on the future. Suddard, thinking this man is the devil quickly kills him with a pitchfork before discovering that he is him from the future. Suddard takes the 2060 Suddard’s time travel watch and accidentally gets sent back to 1930 where he meets prohibition era Suddard.

Suddard remembers meeting himself from when he lived in the 1930s but the two quickly part ways in order to avoid a rift in time. Suddard returns to 1960 but messes up with the watch and time travels into Cordoza, killing him. Cordoza is revealed to be the son of a prominent mob boss who orders a hit on Suddard. Suddard tries to escape but a bullet hits the watch and he is sent to 1860 where he accidentally stops a train from hitting a young man. Suddard learns that the 1860 Suddard is his father and on returning to 1960, discovers that his father has followed him causing a rift that has sent the world of 1960 into a molten state. The 1860 Suddard is killed by lava but Suddard doesn’t die, proving that 1860 Suddard was not his father.

Suddard heads to 2060 in order to find 2060 Suddard before he went to 1960 but he presses the wrong button and ends up in 2160 where he meets 2160 Suddard who has reverted to a feral state. Suddard kills 2160 Suddard and returns to 2060 where he meets 2060 Suddard before he goes to 1960. He tells 2060 Suddard not to go back as it could affect time as Suddard will kill him in 1960 but 2060 Suddard says no and forces his way past Suddard. Suddard then kills 2060 Suddard in a fight and therefore alters the timeline so that 1960 and 2060 Suddard never met in 1960. This makes it so Suddard never got the watch but also at the same time did causing two alternate timelines. Suddard goes back to 1960 and saves Cordoza from the version of himself who is returning from 1930.

Cordoza is then hit by a bus and it is revealed that he was intended to die this way anyway, having no effect on the burning future. It turns out that a temporal causality loop had been created in which 2060 Suddard’s future only existed if he went back to 1960 to fix it. Suddard had killed him twice and therefore rendered the timeline void, destroying the molten future from the timeline and somehow fixing everything.



Trivia

This novel has been widely noted as a book that nobody could follow, the author even stating that by chapter 10 even he had no idea what was happening.