Tuesday 23 February 2021

Dissimilar Settings

Bodin Miyatovich stood outside a cathedral here and on the command bridge of a space dreadnaught here, two entirely dissimilar settings for fictional narratives although Poul Anderson as author was equally at home in both. Unfortunately, when the action has shifted to the dreadnaught, we have had our last sight of Dennitza. The remaining two novels to feature Dominic Flandry introduce some interesting new planets and also make welcome returns to Terra and Hermes but we never again see Dennitza, Avalon, Vixen or so many others. A future history series reuses settings introduced in earlier installments but also moves the narrative continually forward. The last four installments of the Technic History refer to several earlier settings and even to a colony of Vixen, New Vixen, but also move the action further away in space to newly colonized planets and even to the further edge of another spiral arm thousand of years in the future and that really is the end of the series but we need not go there yet.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

That mention of the cathedral made me think a dreadnought like the "Zvatre Zvezda" would not only have chaplains but might even be large enough to have a compartment used as a chapel.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I would expect a Dennitzan spaceship that size to have an adequate chapel.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree! Esp. in their largest warships.

Ad astra! Sean