First published by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov in 1986, this Science Fiction Adventure story is the fifth story in The Norby Chronicles.
Norby has been teaching Jeff and Albany how to speak French so that they can put on an authentic recreation of a fictional description of Marie-Antoinette and The French Revolution in order to promote a local museum's recent acquisition. While in the middle of the performance, they suddenly find themselves in 18th century France, caught up in the scandal of Queen Antoinette's necklace. Without Norby, how will they Get Back to the Future?
Norby and the Queen's Necklace contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Time Travel: The protagonists are re-enacting a (fictional) account of Marie-Antoinette and her Necklace. As the replica is tied around her neck, they are suddenly transported to Paris, France, on top of the jewelers who made the original. Albany is forced to Time Travel again, leaving Jeff and Fargo to face accusations of theft by themselves. As Norby tries to rescue them and return the real necklace, the replica continues to mess with his ability to maneuver in time, causing several wrong destinations.
- Alternate Timeline: The characters call these time-tracks, having created a "false" one when Albany took the diamond necklace that was the focus of Marie-Antoinette's scandal before it reached Comtesse de la Motte, preventing the scandal from occurring in the first place. Without that scandal, The French Revolution was a peaceful change in government, creating a constitutional monarchy. In order to return to their own time, the characters have to first return the necklace to the jewelers it was taken from.
- Dedication: This is another Asimov book dedicated to Marg and Bill Atwood.
- Fading Away: In chapter four, Jeff and Norby are faint, and they guess that something happened to prevent them from being born/rebuilt, something that happened in the 18th century. Marcel queries a local about The French Revolution, establishing that it was a violent revolution and the necklace caused a scandal.
- Get Back to the Future: By chapter two, Jeff has figured out that he's traveled back in time, and now they have to return to their time (and the right timeline) and on stage to finish their re-enactment.
- Historical In-Joke:
- Due to Accidental Time Travel, the protagonists are now at least somewhat to blame for "The Diamond Necklace Affair", because Albany took the real necklace when she time-travelled away from the jewelers' shop. This created an Alternate Timeline where The French Revolution was a peaceful affair, with the Queen being deported instead of beheaded, and her son becoming a constitutional monarch.
- Jeff finds himself present on the streets of Paris during the original Bastille Day, and has to escape the crowd so that Norby can find him and take him back to Fargo and the others.
- Literary Allusion Title: The In-Universe skit and the story itself is based on the Alexandre Dumas tale, The Queens Necklace, which is a fictional account of Marie-Antoinette and The Diamond Necklace Affair.
- Master Computer: The Computer General has a few servers on asteroids, but is built with a Subspace Ansible incorporated, causing it to "resonate" through hyperspace. It was built by the Others to monitor the entire galaxy.
- Newspaper Dating:
- In chapter two, the first time the characters activate the necklace, Jeff finds a newspaper on the floor, establishing that they're in Paris, France, and that they arrived on February 1, 1785.
- In chapter four, after Norby rescues Jeff and Marcel from the executioner, Marcel picks up a newspaper that says the date is April 16, 1896. Jeff can’t because he and Norby are Fading Away.
- In chapter eleven, Norby is the one who finds a newspaper, giving us the date of July 14, 1805. It shows that time has been changed, because people aren’t celebrating Bastille Day.
- Paradise Planet: In one time-track, this planet is named I-13 and is barren, tyrannical, and hostile to the protagonists. In the other time-track (the "true" timeline), the planet is well-terraformed, beautiful, with many children playing and a museum that is friendly to all visitors, even those illegal time travellers.
- Place Before Time: The Others built a time machine into a necklace, using metal they say is from before this universe was made. At the end of the book, they say that they will use this metal to help escape the destruction of this universe.
- The Power of Love: Norby is comatose after the replica necklace gets attached to him. Jeff has to concentrate on his Touch Telepathy and invest in his love for his friend, first to contact the Others, then to break the necklace safely. The Other helping him makes it explicit that it is Jeff's love for Norby that is needed to save Norby's life.
- Shout-Out:
- Alexandre Dumas is mentioned for his fictional account of Queen Antoinette and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which also names this story; The Queens Necklace.
- Norby tries to mention Charles Dickens in chapter one, but is ignored. He later paraphrases from A Tale of Two Cities; "It was a far, far better thing I did", before getting interrupted again.
- When Marcel (from 1785) speaks to a 1896 local about Time Travel, they admit to having read the recent novel by Herbert George Wells, The Time Machine.
- When Marcel is told about space travel, he asks if it is like the book by Cyrano De Bergerac, Voyages To The Moon And The Sun, but only names the author.
- While offscreen and entertaining the ladies of the French court, Fargo sang Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio.
- While entertaining the ladies of the French court, Jeff and Fargo sing several songs, including "Yankee Doodle".
- While interrogating Jeff and Fargo, Benjamin Franklin mentions Voltaire's Micromégas, but only names the author.
- Spell My Name With An S: In chapter five, Norby refers to the spacer who rebuilt him as MacGillicuddy, not McGillicuddy, as established in Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot.
