Earlier And Later In The Series

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In "Delenda Est" (1955), Piet Van Sarawak is from Venus in the early twenty fourth century. In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" (1983), there is a hospital on the Moon in 2319. These fictitious dates entail that the Venerian colony and the Lunar hospital are contemporary with each other. However, the publication dates of the two stories present an alternative perspective.

In those twenty eight years, it was learned that Venus was not a planet that would be easily colonized. Science fiction written in the mid-1950's assumes a Venus as easily colonizable as Australia whereas sf written in the mid-1980's draws on considerably more detailed information about conditions in other parts of the Solar System. Writing in 1983, Anderson simply does not refer to Van Sarawak's Venus but instead presents a more restrained view of the future in space with no mention of anything beyond the Moon - although I found the artificial gravity rather surprising.

The Venus colony is not denied. Anderson was careful not to include any future information that would be negated during his lifetime. I think of these two stories as earlier and later in the series rather than as contemporary with each other.