Personal Beginnings

I first read "The Game of Glory" by Poul Anderson in a British reprint edition of Venture SF some time before 1967. This was my first Dominic Flandry story and possibly my first Technic History story. In it, the Merseians ruled an Empire not yet called "the Roidhunate." I compared this work to James Blish's "Beep" - two space secret service stories. See also here.

I knew of Flandry and Nicholas van Rijn before I learned that they inhabited a single timeline. I was surprised to read in an sf mag loccol (science fiction magazine letter of comment column) that David Falkayn, who was with van Rijn in the Polesotechnic League series, had been responsible for the development of Merseia, which was in the Dominic Flandry series. Then I read Mirkheim, starring Falkayn and featuring a Merseian.

Now it is 2014. We are in an sf future where we discuss Anderson's works on a worldwide computer network. Space exploration is not happening to schedule but is happening on a small scale with plans for commercial space travel and for the development of the Moon and Mars. I would like to be alive in 2057, the date mentioned in "The Saturn Game," but would then be 108. The present world is in turmoil which means conflict and change. Change. In 2057, things will be very different both from the way they are now and from the way anyone has imagined them.

Negatively, I do not expect regular space travel any time soon. Positively, we can formulate hopes and preferences but not expectations.