This in turn made me think logically about how central Methuselah's Children is to the Future History. It features Andrew Libby who was introduced in Volume III and refers to:
the Prophets, Novak and Coventry, all introduced in Volume III;
the Second American Revolution and the Cosmic Construction Corps, both described in Volume III;
the lost generation ship, Vanguard, the setting of Volume V;
the Federation, "The Green Hills of Earth," Venusberg and the Venerians, all introduced in Volume II;
the Road Cities and Luna City, introduced in Volume I;
the road strike of 1966, mentioned in Volume I;
Harriman, the title character of Volume I;
Pinero, the central character in the opening story, "Life-Line."
And that just about sums up the Future History. Excellent though it is, it is simply set on a much smaller scale than the seven omnibus volumes of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, the uniform edition of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. The People Of The Wind, at the end of Volume III, incorporates Ythrians and Avalon, mentions the growing Roidhunate, involves the Empire and refers back to Falkayn but those cross-references in no way summarize the Technic History!
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, Anderson's Technic Civilization stories far surpassed in quality both Robert Heinlein's "Future History" and Asimov's FOUNDATION series. But they, esp. Heinlein's work, were inspirations to Anderson, telling him what could be done writing a long series of linked stories.
Anderson's Psychotechnic Institute was directly inspired by Heinlein, but he eventually became dissatisfied, as we know, with that framework. The accidental linking together of two originally separate series about Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry led to his far more successful and deeply thought out Technic series.
Sean
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