Time in Advance is a collection of four short stories by American science fiction writer William Tenn (a pseudonym of Philip Klass).

Algernon Hebster is a highly successful businessman, owing mostly to his dealings with primeys, who supply him with the knowledge for advanced technologies which he puts to use in commerce.

The problem is that primeys are so dangerous that dealing with them is highly illegal and every attempt is made to confine them to the reservations around their perceived alien masters.

Two "pre-criminals", "Blotto" Otto Henck and Nicholas Crandall, manage against all the odds to serve out two full terms for murder in an off-world penal colony.

[2] Anthony Boucher received the collection enthusiastically, describing the two novellas included as "models absolute of extrapolative wit and insight" while finding the shorter stories "of almost comparable quality.