Friday 25 December 2015

Structural Parallels

There are structural parallels between Poul Anderson's first two future histories:

The Psychotechnic History
World War III
UN World government, then the Solar Union
The Second Dark Ages
The Stellar Union
The Third Dark Ages
at least two interstellar Empires
Galactic civilization

The Technic History
The Chaos
The Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League
The Time of Troubles
The Terran Empire
The Long Night
The Allied Planets
human civilizations in two or three spiral arms
The later era of the Galactic Archaeological Society

In both cases:

a period of Terrestrial conflict separates the readers' "present" from the first space-faring period;
civilization falls twice.

Although one story is set in the Times of Troubles and another in the Long Night, none are set during the Second or Third Dark Ages but might there be some untold stories in these periods?

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