Poul Anderson did not construct a coherent timeline for his Time Patrol series. He merely now and then referred to future events or periods, with or without dates, and avoided any glaring inconsistencies between them.
In this timeline, time travel was discovered in 19352 AD:
"'...a turbulent age, when commercial and genetic rivalry was a tooth-and-claw matter between giant combines; anything went, and the various governments were pawns in a galactic game.'" (Time Patrol, Riverdale, NY, 2006, p. 9)
In a lot of sf, including many individual works and entire series by Anderson, humanity spreads through the galaxy, becomes independent of Earth and would even be able to survive the destruction of Earth. That seems to be happening here. The "...various governments..." might conceivably be the governments of other intelligent species rather than of humanly colonized planets but commercial rivalry between giant combines sounds like the projection of Terrestrial post-Industrial Revolution economics onto a galactic scale rather than the coming together of independently evolved species and societies.
However, we are also told that, "'...Earth...'ll always be the human globe...'" (p. 259)
- so humanity is not going to spread as far as it does in many other works.
We are not told that the Danellians, our evolutionary successors who found the Patrol, are based on Earth although the reader could be forgiven for thinking this. Patrolman Everard, based in the twentieth century, is seen in action only on Earth but that is because he operates in the preceding three thousand years. We are to understand that other Patrol agents operate throughout the next million plus years up to the era of the Danellians.
19352 is long after the date surmised for the last story in Anderson's Technic Civilization History but these are, in any case, different timelines. In the twenty ninth century of the Time Patrol timeline, New Edom on Mars fights the Second Asteroid War. Nothing like that occurs in the Technic History twenty ninth century. If the two series had shared a single timeline, then it would have been just a matter of a few references to the Polesotechnic League or the Terran Empire but Everard would not have intervened in either period.
3 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Congratulations on the 1000th note on this blog! Altho I've contributed a few, you are the one who has enormously contributed the most.
I hope your efforts, with some help (I trust) by me, has contributed to increasing awareness and knowledge of Poul Anderson and his works.
Again, let me urge readers of this blog to deposit their own comments and thoughts. They don't have to be deeply familiar with Poul Anderson. Start by asking questions, no matter how "elementary" those questions might be.
Sean
Hi, Paul!
Hmmm, interested in trying to work out a timeline for the Time Patrol? It might help listing the Time Patrol stories and the dates or periods they were set in. Along with the few known dates to the future in that time line.
Manse Everard was an "Unattached Agent," recall. That means he was not rigidly assigned to only one period but could go "when" a job required him to go. But, yes, I don't recall him solving problems in the far future, in the line leading to the Danellians.
Everard did have a very interesting meeting when an officer from the Middle Command came to consult him (in THE SHIELD OF TIME). If I recall rightly, Guion came from quite a long ways in the future.
And I'm still glad Poul Anderson did not try to link together the Technic History and the Time Patrol. My view is that would have strained and weakened both series.
Sean
Sean,
I did attempt a Time Patrol Chronology way back on the blog, if you remember. It is surprising how many dates are given both for events in the stories and for others that are mentioned casually.
Paul.
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