Thursday 21 February 2013

Flying Mountains

When I remarked a few posts ago that I had almost exhausted Poul Anderson's series for rereading purposes, I was temporarily forgetting Tales Of The Flying Mountains, which I will tackle next if I can find my copy which should be shelved in a room where my granddaughter, Yossi, is currently exercising.

I remarked much earlier that Anderson's future histories form a conceptual sequence that sounds like a single series although it is in fact eight (I would now say nine) distinct series. Slightly revising my earlier characterization of this sequence, its constituent series are:

The Psychotechnic History: stories set in successive periods of a time chart of future civilizations;
The History of Technic Civilisation: stories showing the rise and fall of future civilizations;
Maurai: post-nuclear Earth;
Flying Mountains: asteroid colonization as recorded by the first extrasolar colonists;
Rustum and Directorate: extrasolar colonization;
Kith: interstellar trade and galactic exploration;
Harvest of Stars: artificial intelligence conflicting with extrasolar colonists;
Genesis: artificial intelligence exploring the galaxy and recreating extinct humanity. 

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Actually, there was another series of stories Poul Anderson co authored with Gordon R. Dickson which I believes belongs on your list. I mean the Hoka series, comprising ten short stories and one novel (STAR PRINCE CHARLIE).

Yes, I realize you never quite liked those stories and also because you think the Hoka "timeline" too short to really count as a "future history." Nonetheless, the Hoka stories DO form a series.

I had fun reading the Hoka stories. Not all SF has to be grimly serious! Humor has its proper place as well. And as THE MAKESHIFT ROCKET shows, Poul Anderson was capable of being funny.

I rather hope your grand daughter Yossi is a fan of PA!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Not yet. Yossi, 19, reads aesthetics and psychology and might start a University course.