Both the Technic History and the Time Patrol series are about historical processes. The Technic History is about cyclical and future historical processes whereas the Time Patrol series is about past historical processes insofar as they affect the present and the future. The effects of processes can be discussed by imagining changing the processes. So can the two approaches be combined? Poul Anderson did not combine the Technic History and the Time Patrol series but did connect the Maurai History with the single time travel novel,
There Will Be Time.The Maurai Federation exists for a period of time in the future whereas There Will Be Time covers:
the historical past
several decades of the twentieth century
the Maurai period
the further future
The Maurai do not suspect that they are a cause of conflict between two rival groups of time travelers.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I'm glad Anderson did not try to link up the Technic stories with the Time Patrol series. Because such an effort could have so easily ended up making a hopeless muddle of both timelines. I think that linking up of THERE WILL BE TIME with the Maurai worked, to the extent we see it doing, because there were only three of those Maurai stories. More controllable, easier to guard against contradictions.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
And the Maurai series is a fiction within the fiction of THERE WILL BE TIME. Anderson tells us that it was he who named those people "Maurai." Havig says that Anderson guessed wrong as often as right about the details.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot about that point, one I agree with. I did have in mind how the Maurai stories had a serious flaw: metals should not be as rare and costly in that timeline as we see them being said in them.
Ad astra! Sean
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