"The Haunted Bordinghouse," spoilers alert.
Okay, so we have this house, and each face opens onto a different era.
STYLE ODD NOTES
1. Neo-Classical boy climbing out window
2. Tudor window of Enan's room
3. Neo-Victorian Enan's world (circa AD 2100, 2200?)
4. Contemporary
It seems odd that Enan's room is on the Tudor side; does this mean that the Tudor side is a staging area? What is the Tudor connection to this story? If Tudor is a staging area, then maybe Contemporary is a staging area, too; at which point the reader has been lured in, as well. (That is: you know why you are reading it--you are being recruited.)
We have at least two battles-won-under-mysterious-circumstances: Hannibal's invasion of Rome c. 216 BC; Mexico's invasion of Granville c. AD 2000 (date guess--maybe somebody else can come up with better dating for Enan's era). So much is clear: Enan and a bunch of English speakers go and help save Rome; in return, the trans-temporal army travels to Granville to help save Granville.
But ah! While the dark lady says that you can see Mexican bullet-holes in the Neo-Victorian face, it seems clear that the invasion must have actually happened in the Contemporary era; the invasion was one of the elements that forged the neo-Victorian world that Enan lives in.
So the Neo-Victorian era is a staging ground for the wars:
1. Neo-Classical Hannibal's invasion
2. Tudor
3. Neo-Victorian staging ground
4. Contemporary Mexico's invasion
Well, I can't help but think about the defeat of the Spanish Armada (AD
1587); another attempted invasion with overwhelming numbers. In talking about the Mexican invasion, the informant says there were suddenly a lot of boats around Granville, a detail that fits nicely with (or inspires me to dream up) the Armada as a third battle.
Still a tad shaky.
Here's something else: "Enan Bradford" sounds rather close to "Emory Bainbridge" of "The Ziggurat," which is strange.
=mantis=