"The Star Plunderer" was published in 1952 whereas
The Earth Book Of Stormgate was published twenty-six years later in 1978 yet, at the mid-point of
The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III,
Rise Of The Terran Empire, published in 2011, the
Earth Book Afterword, fictitiously written by Hloch of the Stormgate Choth on Avalon in the Domain of Ythri, is immediately followed by the Introduction to an extract from the Memoirs of Rear Admiral John Henry Reeves, Imperial Solar Navy. This extract is known to us as "The Star Plunderer" and its Introduction is fictitiously written by Donvar Ayeghen, the President of the Galactic Archeological Society, thus thousands of years later than the
Earth Book. Works written decades apart by Poul Anderson are fitted together into a complex but coherent history. Ayeghen introduces Reeves writing about Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire. Reeves' account, like some of the
Earth Book narratives, might be a fiction within the fiction and we know that we have read something solid.
5 comments:
One thing we should note is that as a civilization becomes more technologically advanced, records grow more complete.
Thus, I'd be skeptical that data about Manuel Argos would be limited to ex-post-facto first-person accounts.
They'd have his school records, lots of pictures/video, probably his DNA, retina prints and fingerprints would be on file, credit reports...
One (minor) theme in my BLACK CHAMBER series is that the characters are aware of how records are becoming more complete and easier to access.
Thus, when Luz impersonates the proprietor of an art company, she has to have someone in Mexico City at the purported businesses' address to answer the phone... because now (and this is only about 5 or 6 years old) you can telephone from San Francisco to Mexico City and -check- on this.
True, but there was never a complete break in technologically advanced civilization; and digital information is light and easy to duplicate and preserve. If there are millions of standard information files scattered on hundreds/thousands of planets, one will always survive somewhere -- and can then be duplicated and copied effortlessly.
It's not like the Roman Empire, where books were hand-copied and at most a few thousand copies existed at any one time.
Too true.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A possible flaw in your argument is this: records about Manuel Argos might survive on Planet A and be FORGOTTEN or misplaced. They won't be much use to anyone if no one knows of them.
Ad astra! Sean
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