The Time Hoppers

by Robert Silverberg

Joe Quellen is a Class Seven bureaucrat in a highly stratified, overpopulated 25th century Earth with a one world government. Those who are in lower classes, such as his sister and brother-in-law in Classes Fourteen and Fifteen, only have the privilege of a one room apartment with even the shower out for full display. Oxygen is rationed. Quellen has managed to find a house for himself in Africa, but if this is discovered he would be severely punished as living space in the world is at a premium. The level of technology is highly advanced; teleportation is a reality, as is time travel. When the novel opens, Quellen's superiors have discovered that missing segments of the population have time traveled back into the past in order to experience a better quality of life; they don't know whether to be happy that they'd shed thousands of people, or upset that the time travelers may be changing history. Quellen is assigned the task of dealing with the situation.