Thursday 26 May 2022

Reconceptualizing Two Series

I keep revising my summary of the contents of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. See here.

The latest revision -

Delete:

(v) Wanda Tamberly's Time Patrol career (two);

Insert:

(v) Wanda Tamberly's early Time Patrol career, beginning in Beringia and ending with the alpha-beta-timelines crisis (two);

This is a more detailed summary and emphasises that Tamberly's career is just beginning. What might have happened next? At the end of a series, we are only at a beginning.

In Anderson's Technic History, the Flandry period ends with the beginning of Flandry's daughter's career and what we know of the post-Imperial periods ends with the beginning of a new era of unprecedented wealth.

I have posted on several occasions about beginning the Technic History with seven volumes culminating in The Earth Book Of Stormgate. After that, there are ten fairly straightforward volumes:

Young Flandry (three volumes);
"Outpost of Empire " and The Day Of Their Return (one);
Captain Flandry (three);
Admiral Flandry (two);
After the Empire (one).

"Captain Flandry" is two collections and one novel although the order of the contents of the collections needs to be revised. It makes sense for the first collection to end with "A Message in Secret" and for the second to begin with "A Plague of Masters," which corresponds to the way these works are presented in The Technic Civilization Saga.

Since the second "Admiral Flandry" volume is The Game Of Empire, the single post-Imperial volume could appropriately be entitled After The Empire.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I would argue, however, that any recollecting of the Captain Flandry stories should follow the internal chronological order of the stories which I struggled to achieve in my revised article on the chronology of the Technic stories. A revision inspired by you!

I agree the four stories set after the fall of the Empire deserve to be collected in their own volume.* But AFTER THE EMPIRE does not seem PITHY enough as a title. I would advocate naming such a volume THE POST-IMPERIAL ERA.

Ad astra! Sean


*And should the original texts of the Technic stories revised by Anderson be included in such a volume? Or would the original versions of "Margin of Profit," "The White King's War," "Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies," and "Warriors From Nowhere" be best collected in their own volume?

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Their own volume.

I think that the Flandry stories are in their chronological order in THE TECHNIC CIVILIZATION SAGA.

I suggested AFTER THE EMPIRE as a companion title to THE GAME OF EMPIRE but obviously other options are possible.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Another comment disappeared. Drat!

Some questions still remain. The editors of a hypothetical COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON might not think either the four post-Imperial stories or the five items revised by Anderson long enough to justify a separate volume for them. So the original texts of the revised stories might be included as an appendix to AFTER THE EMPIRE.

I favor THE POST-IMPERIAL ERA for the last four Technic stories because I think it reads more smoothly.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul! I hope the hypothetical editors of a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON come across these blog articles and combox discussions--in hopes of finding them useful. I like THE POST-IMPERIAL ERA because it SEEMS to read more smoothly than AFTER THE EMPIRE. Ad astra! Sean