Time Travel And Related Works II

After completing the previous post, I was impressed at how easy it became to summarize so many of Poul Anderson's works under headings related to time. The focus expanded from a single time traveler to a gang, to a police force, to contending armies; then from a single timeline to several although, of the several, two were Babylonian whereas four were Old Phoenix-related. There were also the two works, very dissimilar in style and content, showing, respectively, a cosmic cycle and the origins of some Greek myths.

Anderson's Psychotechnic future history diverged from the real world when that world's near future became its present. At that stage, Anderson scholar, Sandra Miesel, inserted interstitial material outlining the divergent history, for example dating World War III. Anderson's Technic Civilization future history begins far enough in the future to prevent any early divergence. Nicholas van Rijn's presence in the Old Phoenix shows that the Technic History coexists with, among many others, the three alternative timelines whose distinguishing features can each be conveniently summarized by a two-word phrase: Carolingian mythology; working magic; Shakespearean History.

I mention all this in order to commend yet again Poul Anderson's diversity and creativity.