Monday 1 August 2022

Multiple Viewpoints

A fictional universe requires multiple viewpoints. Thus, in Poul Anderson's Technic History, having met Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn and Adzel in the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy and Ythrians on Avalon in The People Of The Wind, we next turn to The Earth Book Of Stormgate where we find the Avalonian Ythrian, Hloch of Stormgate Choth, introducing:

James Ching's account of his student days with Adzel;
Emil Dalmady's encounter with van Rijn;
events on the planet Ivanhoe after Falkayn had been there;
a narrative in which van Rijn is mentioned as a public figure;
van Rijn's granddaughter travelling with him in an Ythrian ship to Mirkheim where they meet Falkayn and Adzel;
etc.

In the Time Patrol series:

the central continuing character, Manse Everard;
other Patrol agents, Tom Nomura and Carl Farness;
the niece of a Patrol agent.

In "The Year of the Ransom," Wanda Tamberly refers to her Uncle Steve. Her kidnapper refers to her uncle Estaban. The following chapter, headed 3 June 1533 [Julian calender], introduces Fray Estaban Tanaquil. So we gradually get the message that Stephen Tamberly is a Patrolman.

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

It's probably fairly common for families to have multiple members in the Patrol -- we see one instance of children already being assessed to join, and there's the Tamberlys.

Both professions and abilities do tend to run in families. My father always wanted to write fiction, for instance, and would probably have been pretty good at it; one of my brothers is so similar we've been mistaken for each other on the telephone, and we have very similar habits of mind too.