In order to make clear to his readers which series he means, Anderson writes that The Night Face:
"...does fit into the same 'future history' as the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire. Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn, Christopher Holm, Dominic Flandry, and quite a few more characters lived in its past." (Flandry's Legacy, New York, 2012, p. 543)
I agree with Anderson's promotion of Christopher Holm into the ranks of van Rijn etc. It may be thought that, although Holm is in the series, he is not a series character, i. e., he appears in only one work, The People Of The Wind. However, Hloch, the Ythrian editor of The Earth Book Of Stormgate, informs us that Arinnian, whose human name is Christopher Holm, had compiled two of the narratives collected in the Earth Book. Thus, Arinnian features in two volumes of the History where he helps to fill the gap between van Rijn and Falkayn of the League and Flandry of the Empire.
The colonization of Avalon and the establishment of its right to remain in the Domain of Ythri, as against the Terran Empire, is an important part of the story.
8 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I would have included Chunderban Desai in the list Anderson gave. After all, he was one of the two viewpoint characters in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN and appears in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.
And the dual human/Ythrian colony of Avalon fought so hard to remain in the Domain not because they feared the Empire would tyrannical as because annexation into it would have meant the end of that unique experiment. Because immigration from other parts of the Empire would have eventually absorbed to a nullity the Ythrian element.
And the Polesotechnic League and Terran Empire stories originally formed two different series. On an impulse, Anderson added a mention of Nicholas van Rijn in "A Plague of Masters."
I'm currently rereading AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, and have gotten to "Honorable Enemies." I fear I found an inconsistency in Anderson's work. By the end of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, Chunderban Desai (and presumably Naval Intelligence) knew of Aycharaych and his unique telepathic abilities. BUT, Flandry only found out about Aycharaych's powers in "Honorable Enemies." Shouldn't he have known about Aycharaych at least five years earlier and not have been so shocked at finding out he was a telepath? I would have thought Naval Intelligence would have informed Flandry about the Chereionite.
True, Flandry does mentions to Aline Chang, Lady Marr of Syrtis, that he had known of Aycharaych's existence. But not about his telepathic powers. This really does seem to have been a slip on Anderson's part.
Sean
Greetings, Sean.
Even Homer nods. Anderson said, as you doubtless know, that constructing an entirely consistent secondary universe would be good therapy for a mental patient with delusions of godhood.
Best Regards, Nicholas
Hi, Nicholas!
Indeed, I read somewhere, probably in his essay "Concerning Future Histories," Anderson saying that attempts at building a consistent fictional universe would be good therapy for persons afflicted with delusions of divinity! (Smiles) All the same, it's fun for fans of the works of Anderson, Katherine Kurtz, S.M. Stirling, and JRR Tolkien, etc., to hunt up possible inconsistencies in their fictional universes. And suggest possible ways of resolving or minimizing those inconsistencies.
As I'm sure you know, Poul Anderson wrote some stories and novels using the parallel or alternate universes theory. Examples being THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS and "House Rule." In the latter story we even see Nicholas van Rijn! Which has led me to one of Anderson's comments in a letter he wrote to me, if the alternate universes theory is true, then any possible timeline or historical development, good or bad, is possible. For all we know, there is somewhere a universe where things like the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire are REAL!
Sean
Hi, Nicholas!
A few additional thoughts came to me on this regrettable inconsistency found in Anderson's "Honorable Enemies."
THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN was first published in 1973 while the revised versions of the first three stories in AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE (including "Honorable Enemies") were published in either 1978 or 1979. This means Anderson COULD have been aware of how the Empire knew of Aycharaych's telepathic abilities five years before "Honorable Enemies." And therefore Anderson could have revised that story so that Flandry knew of Aycharaych's telepathic abilities.
The simplest explanation I can think of for this inconistency is that Anderson forgot about how the evidence in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN contradicted what we see in "Honorable Enemies." I think Anderson was so anxious to keep the revised version of the story as close as possible to the original form that he forgot about the need to keep into account the earlier discoveries about Aycharaych in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
Sean
Sean,
How much could Imperial Intelligence deduce about Aycharaych's powers from his performance on Aeneas?
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
See Erannath's explanation to Ivar Frederiksen of Aycharaych's abilities. Aycharaych had talked quite freely to Erannath, not expecting him to escape or survive. It's natural to assume Ivar then passed along what he was told to Commissioner Desai or the Intelligence agents who debriefed him after he escaped. Therfore, it would go into Naval Intelligence's file on Aycharaych, even if some still doubted his telepathic poweres were so broad. And it also makes sense to think Flandry would be briefed on what was known about Aycharaych.
Sean
Aycharaych sabotaged Intelligence Records.
Hi, Paul!
Perhaps you had in mind how Aycharaych or another Merseian agent planted false information about his home planet in the files at Catawrayannis during the confusion of the McCormac rebelllion? And that something similar was done later in an attempt to obscure true knowledge about Aycharaych? While it's by no means unknown for agents of rival powers to attempt planting or passing along false information to each other, I don't think it would work in this case. By the end of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN too many persons, Commissioner Desai, his staff and local Naval Intelligence agents, Ivar, even Tatiana, etc., knew about Aycharaych's telepathic powers for me to think it possible to prevent the Empire from having accurate knowledge about him.
Regretfully, I still have to conclude that in "Honorable Enemies" Anderson slipped up in not taking into account in his revision of that story the information discovered about Aycharaych in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN. And I also argue the simplest explanation for this inconsistency being Anderson so anxious to keep the revision as close as possible to the original verstion that he forgot how this contradicted what we found out about Aycharaych in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
I do wish I had thought of this while Anderson was still alive and discussed it with him in a letter.
Sean
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