The Future History (The Past Through Tomorrow)
- can be collected in two omnibus volumes.
Vol I, 19 stories:
begins in 1951;
involves colonization of the Moon, Mars and Venus;
ends with economic exploitation on Venus and a new religious movement growing on Earth.
Vol II, 2 novels + 4 stories:
begins with social regression in a Theocracy;
The Psychotechnic History
- could be collected in two omnibus volumes.
Vol I, 11 stories:
begins in 1964;
involves colonization of the Moon, Mars and Venus;
ends with a new religious movement growing on Earth.
Vol II, 2 novels + 7 stories:
begins with early interstellar travel;
ends with a mature culture.
7 comments:
Hi, Paul!
And I'm STILL skeptical that "The Chapter Ends" truly belongs in the Psychotechnic History series. It's a very early Anderson story, after all, and has very few signs of being in the same "timeline" as the other stories which indisputably belongs in the Psychotechnic series.
I think it might have been Sandra Miesel who argued for "The Chapter Ends" being in the Pyschotechnic timeline. It was Miesel, after all, who edited many of the 1980s collections of Anderson's short stories.
Sean
Sean,
Miesel's notes put "The Chapter Ends" at the beginning of the fourth millennium whereas the story itself says that tens of thousands of years have elapsed. I have come round to the view that it can be in the same timeline but much further in the future. It does refer to psychotechnicians and galactic integrators (or something like that).
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Well, if "The Chapter Ends" mentions things like "psychotechnicians" I can find it easier to accept that it belongs to the Psychotechnic timeline. But it stil READS so differently from the undoubted Psychotechnic stories that I find it somewhat difficult to accept.
And I would have to disagree with Miesel dating the story to a mere thousand years from now if the actual text says TENS of thousands of years had passed. To say nothing of how the longer time period also gives more time for things like genetic adaptation of the human race to plausibly occur.
Sean
It is the fact that "The Chapter Ends" has a slave-owning "First Empire" twenty thousand years in its past that makes it so discordant from the rest of the series.
Hi, Paul!
I have to disagree. REAL history, shows how people and civilizations can twist and diverge in many strange ways. So, I don't find a slave owning society that implausible, sadly.
What I DID find rather implausible was "The Chapter Ends" stating that men in the remote future were able to transport themselves thousands of light years merely by a mental act of will. Genetic adaptation or not, I am skeptical of that ever becoming possible by fallen men or beings.
Altho, as a Catholic, I think that might well be what men will be capable of after the second cominig of Christ. We see a hint, perhaps, of this in John's Gospel, where it is mentioned how the Lord was able to enter the room where the Apostles were gathered despite the doors being locked.
Sean
A slave-owning Empire is possible. It just doesn't read like something written to follow on from the Stellar Union.
I do not accept the 4th Gospel as a historical account but I discuss this on another blog.
Hi, Paul!
And I think it would not be impossible. Esp. if that Empire arose after a time of chaos following the collapse of the Stellar Union.
I fear we have to disagree again. I do accept that John's Gospel has history as well as theology in it. Fr. John A. Meier has a detailed discussion of this in his four MARGINAL JEW books.
Sean
Post a Comment