Palimpsest
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Charles Stross
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Subterranean Press
Publication date	31 August 2011
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	136 pp
ISBN	978-1596064218

Palimpsest is a 2009 science fiction novella by Charles Stross, exploring the conjunction of time travel and deep time. Originally published in Stross's 2009 collection Wireless, it won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novella.^[1]

Subterranean Press has announced that they will be reprinting the novella separately in 2011.^[2]

Inspiration

Stross has stated that Palimpsest is effectively a rewrite of The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov.^[3]

Plot

Pierce is a police officer with the Stasis, a special institution dedicated to the preservation of humanity by its agents who are able to travel through time. After every extinction event resulting in humanity's end, the Stasis reseeds Earth with a replacement group of humans time-jumped from an earlier era. However, the Opposition, an organisation that seems to struggle against the Stasis, has been created over time, and it seems that Pierce is somehow tied to it.

References

^ 2010 Hugo Award Winners at TheHugoAwards.org, published 5 September 2010, retrieved 29 May 2011
^ Charles Stross --PALIMPSEST update Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, at Subterranean Press, posted 11 May 2011, retrieved 28 May 2011
^ "Last time I did this, I Lied", at Stross's official blog; "If you could re-write one sci-fi (or fantasy) classic, which one would you choose, and why?" "for what it's worth, I've already done it a couple of times, deliberately or accidentally. (I didn't re-read "The End of Eternity" before writing Palimpsest, for example)"; posted 12 April 2011; retrieved 29 May 2011

v t e Bibliography of Charles Stross
Eschaton	Singularity Sky (2003) Iron Sunrise (2004)
The Laundry Files	The Atrocity Archives (2004) The Jennifer Morgue (2006) The Fuller Memorandum (2010) The Apocalypse Codex (2012) The Rhesus Chart (2014) The Annihilation Score (2015) The Nightmare Stacks (2016) The Delirium Brief (2017) The Labyrinth Index (2018) Dead Lies Dreaming (2020)
The Merchant Princes	The Family Trade (2004) The Hidden Family (2005) The Clan Corporate (2006) The Merchants' War (2007) The Revolution Business (2009) The Trade of Queens (2010) Empire Games (2017) Dark State (2018) Invisible Sun (2021)
Halting State	Halting State (2007) Rule 34 (2011)
Saturn's Children	Saturn's Children (2008) Neptune's Brood (2013)
Other fiction	"A Colder War" (2000) Toast: And Other Rusted Futures (2002) Accelerando (2005) Glasshouse (2006) "Missile Gap" (2007) Wireless: The Essential Charles Stross (2009) "Palimpsest" (2009) The Rapture of the Nerds (2012) (with Cory Doctorow)

v t e Hugo Award for Best Novella
Retro Hugos	Who Goes There? by Don A. Stuart (1939) If This Goes On— by Robert A. Heinlein (1941) Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (1943) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1944) Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon (1945) Animal Farm by George Orwell (1946) The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1954)
1968–1980	Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip José Farmer /Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey (1968) Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969) Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (1970) Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971) The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (1972) The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (1974) A Song for Lya by George R. R. Martin (1975) Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976) By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson / Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977) Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978) The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979) Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)
1981–1990	Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson (1981) The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson (1982) Souls by Joanna Russ (1983) Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn (1984) Press Enter by John Varley (1985) 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai by Roger Zelazny (1986) Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg (1987) Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card (1988) The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis (1989) The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1990)
1991–2000	The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman (1991) Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1992) Barnacle Bill the Spacer by Lucius Shepard (1993) Down in the Bottomlands by Harry Turtledove (1994) Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (1995) The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele (1996) Blood of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin (1997) ...Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen Steele (1998) Oceanic by Greg Egan (1999) The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis (2000)
2001–2010	The Ultimate Earth by Jack Williamson (2001) Fast Times at Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge (2002) Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2003) The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge (2004) The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross (2005) Inside Job by Connie Willis (2006) A Billion Eves by Robert Reed (2007) All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis (2008) The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress (2009) Palimpsest by Charles Stross (2010)
2011–2020	The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (2011) The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (2012) The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (2013) Equoid by Charles Stross (2014) (No award given) (2015) Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2016) Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2017) All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018) Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2019) This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2020)
2021–present	The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2021) A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (2022) Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (2023)