Friday 6 October 2023

Seven Similarities Between Five Future Histories

Masters of mental science: Asimov's Second Foundation; Anderson's Chereionites.

Mentally powerful rulers of a former interstellar civilization: Niven's Slavers; Chereionites.

Planetary sources of immense wealth: Herbert's Dune; Anderson's Satan, Mirkheim and Wayland.

Possible jihadic flashpoints: Dune; Anderson's Aeneas.

Interstellar empires: Asimov; Herbert; Anderson; Blish etc.

Preparation for predicted fall of Empire: Asimov; Anderson.

Interstellar trade: Asimov's Traders; Anderson's Polesotechnic League; Blish's Okies etc.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I still remember with amusement how some Merseians had a naive, rather touching faith in the predicted date of Terra's fall!

Ad astra! Sean

DaveShoup2MD said...


Piper had:

Masters of mental science: Nope, at least not in his Future History; he did in his Paratime series, but that was a different universe.

Planetary sources of immense wealth: Yes, although most of his "rich" worlds were more so in technology and production, rather than resource, per se; the major trade was in unique luxuries in return for manufactured goods, until a given world was self-sustaining, at which point trade was reduced to passengers and purely luxury goods.

Possible jihadic flashpoints: Not among humans, really.

Interstellar empires: Several, both with and without "emperors," per se.

Preparation for predicted fall of Empire: Yes.

Interstellar trade: Yes, but see above.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

I disagree with that dismissal of jihadism. Fanaticism, political or religious, can become violent and include wars. And if FTL is ever achieved I can see that occurring on an interstellar scale as well.

Ad astra! Sean