# ID the SF story - Part 2,384
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 18, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476 "2010-02-18T16:10:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/1 "2010-02-18T16:10:40Z")
The basics - I don’t remember if this story is a novel or a novella. I seem to recall reading it in Analog many years ago.
The plot - A small group of aliens crash-land on Earth in the early 1900s. They figure out what will happen in the next few decades, and have no problem letting earthlings know what the future held. They go into suspended animation, to be awakened in a few centuries when Man had finally developed nuclear propulsion. They are awakened in less than 20 years, because the people of Earth decide that the future sounded bleak, so they changed things. Kept WW1 from happening, for one thing.
Does this ring any bells?
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/2 "2010-02-19T00:05:07Z")
Anybody?
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/3 "2010-02-19T03:03:14Z")
I don’t recall this story, but my _Analog_ subscription only ran from like 1978-1985 or so. Have you checked things over at [The Internet Speculative Fiction Database](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi) ?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/4 "2010-02-19T07:40:47Z")
Come on, silenus, give us some vague idea of when you read this story.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/5 "2010-02-19T13:41:09Z")
Mid-70s or so, I think. The aliens (who look pretty much like us) are befriended by H. G. Wells (I think.) They also fix Wilhelm II’s withered arm for him.
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### Author:  [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/6 "2010-02-19T14:20:33Z")
I believe it is a story called And Having Writ.
Here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And\_Having\_Writ…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Having_Writ...)
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/7 "2010-02-19T14:56:11Z")
We have a winner!
Thanks. It was bugging me no end.
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/8 "2010-02-19T21:09:56Z")
> [@montag01](#):
>
> I believe it is a story called And Having Writ.
>
> Here:
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And\_Having\_Writ…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Having_Writ...)
This was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP yesterday, but dismissed it because of this:
> [@silenus](#):
>
> They go into suspended animation, to be awakened in a few centuries when Man had finally developed nuclear propulsion.
My copy of the book is packed away, so I can’t verify my recollection that the aliens never went into suspended animation, nor was it even an option for them. The additional details provided this morning would have clinched it for me, if **montag01** hadn’t beat me to it.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/9 "2010-02-19T21:41:56Z")
No, they went in SA. I remember that when the aliens wake up, they see Wells staring down at them and are puzzled how he could have lived so long. Then they discover that Mankind has been busy while they snoozed.
From wiki:
_It concerns four aliens who crash-land on Earth in 1908 and then journey around the planet, trying to jump-start World War I. Even though they failed to do this, they did succeed in creating the circumstances for their ultimate departure from Earth after a period of suspended animation.[2]_
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-sf-story-part-2-384/529476/10 "2010-02-20T05:01:58Z")
That’s right, I had forgotten that the aliens went into suspended animation near the end of the book.