Tuesday 8 April 2014

Franchise Universes

Call Me Joe and Man-Kzin Wars IX are traveling at sub-light speed from Amazon. Meanwhile, let us consider whether it would be a good idea if Poul Anderson's estate and publishers were to franchise sections of some of his many series, e.g., the Time Of Troubles or the Long Night in the History of Technic Civilization.

Such continuations by other authors would have to be done very well or not at all. There are many unanswered questions in the Technic History - but there are so many that it would never be possible to answer them all.

There are several potential sub-series:

the trader team after Coya had joined it;
the team that Chee Lan joined after Falkayn's team was disbanded;
what van Rijn did later;
the continuing adventures of Diana Crowfeather and her companions;
more about Roan Tom and about the Commonalty Rangers -

- but even this is in no way a complete list.

Continuations of the Time Patrol series would present special problems, to be addressed later. (Right now, my son-in-law is coming out of hospital today so there is some family activity here.)

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I am hesitant over the idea of Poul Anderson's estate permitting "franchising" of his fictional universes with contributions by other authors. Aside from one or two memorial volumes in honor of Anderson. I think "franchising" of the kind we saw in Larry Niven's Man/Kzin wars succeeded in part at least because Niven, as creator of the Known Space series, was and is still alive and able to prevent gross deviations from the Known Space premises. That, alas, is not the case with the now deceased Poul Anderson.

But, as you said, such stories need to be either done WELL or not at all!

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I forgot to ask, in my previous note, how is your son in law? I hope he has made a good recovery!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Thank you for your inquiry. Ketlan is back home and much better but by no means fully recovered. Fortunately, there is a lot of support.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Good, what you told me about Ketlan being much better! I'll say a prayer for his further recovery.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Thank you.
Paul.