Friday 22 July 2016

Beginning Island In The Sea Of Time

I have finished rereading Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children and, on the same day, have received:

a comment from SM Stirling, answering a query about a passage in his The Peshawar Lancers;

my copy of Stirling's Island In The Sea Of Time (New York, 1998).

Island... is relevant to the concerns of this blog in at least four respects:

(i) it comes highly recommended by Poul Anderson -

"'A PERFECTLY SPLENDID STORY ...ENDLESSLY FASCINATING. THERE HAVE BEEN MANY STORIES ABOUT CASTAWAYS IN TIME, BUT VERY FEW SO SOLIDLY CONVINCING.'
-Poul Anderson" (p. 1)

(ii) Stirling's Acknowledgments include:

"...to Poul Anderson for catching a couple of embarrassing errors..." (p. 7)

(iii) Copyright notifications include:

"Lyrics to 'A Girl Needs A Knife' by Neil Gaiman are copyright Neil Gaiman 1995, and used by his kind permission. They are taken from the Flash Girls CD Maurice and I." (p. 4)

(iv) This blog acknowledges SM Stirling as a colleague and successor of Poul Anderson in the sub-genre of alternative fiction history.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I have to go to work, so no time to adequately comment here. But I firmly agree S.M. Stirling is a worthy colleague and successor of Poul Anderson. And I look forward to reading your comments about Stirling's ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

And I have the letter from Poul which contained that quote framed and on the wall of my office. 'twas a great honor.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

And I too have been greatly honored by Poul Anderson. I used to correspond by snail mail with him for many years, for a total of 24 letters. And Mr. Anderson replied with great patience and kindness to every single one of my sometimes far too long and argumentative letters. He even did me the honor of saying he found my letters INTERESTING!

Poul Anderson was one of those writers who actually liked to get letters and feedback from their readers. Not all authors were or are like that!

Sean M. Brooks