Back To Basics With Poul Anderson

Having read and reread everything that I could find by Poul Anderson, I return to what I regard as his two most basic series, the History of Technic Civilization and the Time Patrol series. Future histories and time travel are my two favourite sf themes. Even better, Anderson wrote far more than just these two series on these crucial themes. Both themes address the nature of time. The Time Machine, an important precursor of Anderson's works, features both the passage of time and the future of mankind.

I suppose that the core of the Time Patrol series is the original four short stories about Manson Everard. For over a decade these four stories filled a single volume of modest length comprising the entire series. Fortunately, the series grew and not just by the addition of more stories comparable in length or content to the original four.

The core of the Technic History must be the Captain Flandry series. Before it, in terms of fictional chronology, come the Young Flandry Trilogy and much earlier history. After it, come Flandry's later career and much later history. Captain Flandry fills two collections and one novel although, of course, the contents of the collections must be rearranged so that they are read in the order of Flandry's experience:

Captain Flandry, Volume I

"Tiger By The Tail"

"Honorable Enemies"

"The Game of Glory"

"A Message in Secret"

Volume II

"A Plague of Masters"

"Hunters of the Sky Cave"

"Warriors from Nowhere"

Volume III

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

We might have another look at A Knight...