Multiverses

Nicholas van Rijn is the major character in the Polesotechnic League sub-series of Poul Anderson's Technic History.

The Technic History is one of several important future history series by Anderson and other sf writers.

Such series, like all other works of fiction, can be incorporated into fictional multiverses.

Finally, van Rijn shows up in one such multiverse created by his creator, Anderson.

When we read about van Rijn in the Old Phoenix, we have come a long way from the original "Margin of Profit," which was a one-off story not yet part of any series.

We should occasionally contemplate the implication that all works of fiction can be incorporated into a multiverse. Thus, I have just begun to read To Kill The President by Sam Bourne/Jonathan Freedland. Set either in an alternative present or very soon after the next US Presidential election, this novel gives us a fictional President, although we think that we recognize him. This is yet another fictional timeline that can easily be conceptualized as existing in parallel with many other alternative histories although this story, as is usually the case, does not involve any travel between timelines.