(i) the return of a key character in a prequel;
(ii) place names as common background for disparate stories.
(i) In the Future History, "Requiem," (1940) in which D.D. Harriman dies on the Moon, was followed by "The Man Who Sold The Moon," (1950) in which Harriman put the first man on the Moon. In the Psychotechnic History, Star Ways/The Peregrine, (1956) in which Coordinator Trevelyan Micah joins the Nomads, was followed by "The Pirate," (1968) about an earlier case in Micah's career.
Concerning his Psychotechnic History, Anderson wrote:
"I never formally abandoned my chronicle. Indeed, as late as 1968 I added a fresh chapter to it, 'The Pirate.' However, that was after a lapse of several years, and merely because a particular character and setting would serve the purposes of this particular tale."
-Poul Anderson, "Concerning Future Histories" IN Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America, Fall 1979, pp.7-14 AT p. 8.
(ii) To be continued.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Never formally abandoned? Yes, but Anderson still came to be dissatisfied, as a whole, with the Psychotechnic history.
And I now have my doubts that "Star Ship," first pub. in PLANET STORIES in 1950, truly belongs with the Psychotechnic series. The earliest pub. undoubted Psychotechnic stories, in internal chronological order, were "Marius" (ASTOUNDING, June 1957), "UN-Man" (ASTOUNDING, January 1953), "The Sensitive Man" (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, Nov. 1953), and "The Big Rain" (ASTOUNDING, Oct. 1954).
"Star Ship" and "The Chapter Ends" simply don't FEEL as tho they share the same background as the undoubted Psychotechnic stories. Anderson wrote a dozen or so stories for PLANET STORIES at a time when he needed money fairly quickly, and he wrote them with an eye to catering them to the stories preferred by PS. The single vague mention of "Galactic Coordinators" in "Star" is not enough to convince me it belongs with the Psychotechnic timeline.
These doubts of mine would be abandoned if evidence was found and pub. that Anderson meant "Star Ship" and "The Chapter Ends" to be included with the Psychotechnic timeline. One piece of convincing evidence would be him including the titles of those stories in the chart he drew up for the Psychotechnic stories.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Like "Gypsy," "Star Ship" is set before the founding of the Stellar Union and the Coordination Service.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I accept that "Gypsy," set very soon after the invention of FTL, belongs with the Psychotechnic stories, but not "Star Ship." I got the impression that the galactic civilization mentioned in the latter story was old and widespread. But no mention was made of the Stellar Union or the Coordination Service.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Some of the Psychotechnic History stories set in the FTL interstellar period do indeed imply an old, widespread "Galactic" civilization. We feel that we are reading different histories.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
They do. And I would argue that "Star Ship" and "The Chapter Ends" were not meant by Anderson to be parts of the Psychotechnic series. But this is now an old debate of ours!
Ad astra! Sean
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