Admiralty Center;
Archopolis;
Flandry's apartment and roof garden, surrounded by the towers of Archopolis;
his cabin in the High Sierra;
his efforts to delay the Fall of Empire and shorten the subsequent dark age;
the fact that "Earth abides" beneath the works of men;
the Terran Empire;
other important planets and interstellar realms in that period -
- and we have not yet discussed:
the little that we are told of Flandry's origins;
the gaps between the books and after the last book;
other encounters with Aycharaych and A'u;
the future of Flandry's daughter and her traveling companions.
But none of these posts was planned. Blogging is unpredictable. The blogger's mind is free to roam among Anderson's many works - and also among relevant works by other authors. I will shortly begin to read Conquistador by SM Stirling. The text of this novel fills 582 close-packed pages and there are four Appendices in a further fourteen pages. This will take some time to read. Meanwhile, volumes 5 and 6 of the NESFA Press collections of Poul Anderson's Short Works remain to be acquired but look quite expensive right now.
So far, the blog has always circled back to Anderson as the original inspiration but we will have to see how it develops.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paiul!
I'm eagerly looking forward to discussion of S.M. Stirling's CONQUISTADOR and how that book may have allusions to or connections with Poul Anderson's works.
Hmmm, early life and origins of Dominic Flandry? I recall him mentioning in ENSIGN FLANDRY that he was the illegitimate son of a minor Imperial noble who was, I think, both something of a scholar and a space captain, and that his mother was an actress. And that his parents were conscientious about raising and educating Flandry. Pity we never see either of them in person!
And, I agree, there is so much we would like to know about Aycharaych,A'au, his daughter Diana, Fr. Axor, Targovi, Crown Prince Karl, etc.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Let's see, you wrote: "the gaps between the books and the last book." Interesting, let's examine that a bit: THE GAME OF EMPIRE is set about five years after A STONE IN HEAVEN, A STONE IN HEAVEN is set 14 years after A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, and that book is set seven or 8 years after WE CLAIM THESE STARS, et cetera, straight back to ENSIGN FLANDRY. With the short stories and additional novel (A PLAGUE OF MASTERS) collected in AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE and FLANDRY OF TERRA, some of those gaps were filled in. But, you were wondering what was happening to Flandry, the Empire, and the known galaxy during the gaps beginning with A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS and the last two Flandry books.
Sean
Sean,
Yes and there are similar gaps in the League period.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Quite true! Plenty of room has been left open for readers and fans to speculate about! And some fans even write fanfics, non-authorized, non-copyrighted continuations set in the worlds of their favorite fantasy and SF writers. I've seen one or two PA related fanfics and, truth to say, I didn't like them.
And, of course, there's AUTHORIZED and copy righted continuations, such as the writers who wrote, with Larry Niven's permissions, stories set in his Man/Kzin Wars. And S.M. Stirling did the same in DRAKAS. I wouldn't call such works quite CANONICAL, more like authorized speculations.
Sean
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