Wednesday 17 August 2016

Connections

We will now focus on just four of the works mentioned in the previous post:

Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson;
The Day After Judgment by James Blish;
Midsummer Century by Blish;
The Triumph Of Time by Blish.

It is noticeable that each of these works is part of a greater whole.

Operation Chaos, a collection and novelization of four "Operation..." stories, has a sequel, Operation Luna;

these two volumes plus two other novels and two short stories form a multiversal sequence.

The Day After Judgment is the sequel to Black Easter;

these two works are Volumes IIa and IIb of Blish's After Such Knowledge Trilogy.

Midsummer Century is connected by a Dirac message to The Quincunx Of Time, a novelization of "Beep";

After Such Knowledge, Volume III, A Case Of Conscience, and The Quincunx Of Time are two of five novels which, together with three short stories, form Blish's non-linear Haertel Scholium.

The Triumph Of Time is Volume IV of Blish's Cities In Flight Tetralogy;

the Dirac transmitter also figures prominently in Cities In Flight.

Thus, I recommend not only the four individual works but also:

the multiversal sequence;
After Such Knowledge;
the Haertel Scholium;
Cities In Flight.

It is now time to look at what Operation Chaos says about survival after death.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And it still amazes me that what I call the Old Phoenix sequence also ties in with Anderson's Technic Civilization timeline. How on TERRA did Nicholas van Rijn (seen in "House Rule") find his way to the Old Phoenix???

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Not on TERRA!
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Well, I was adapting a common figure of speech! (Smiles) But you are very likely correct, Old Nick could have visited the Old Phoenix on a planet off Earth. But he also had mansions, palatial penthouses, and yachts on Terra as well.

Sean