Poul Anderson is a master of sf in general and of time travel fiction in particular;
SM Stirling is a master of alternative history fiction, having written many novels and even series in this specific sub-genre;
Anderson wrote two short stories of realistic alternative history fiction;
however, Anderson's main vehicle for discussing and demonstrating realistic alternative histories is his Time Patrol time travel series;
Stirling has written one Time Patrol short story, "A Slip In Time," which presents an alternative history.
Thus, "A Slip In Time" seems to qualify as a synthesis of the best features of both Stirling and Anderson? It is a story that warrants rereading and further discussion on this blog but first your blogger will finish reading and discussing Stirling's Draka alternative history series volume I for the first time.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And "A Slip in Time" esp. interested because Stirling gave us some speculations there about what might have happened if Archduke Francis Ferdinand had NOT been assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914. Another interesting thing I noted was how Stirling showed the Austrians as being more COMPETENT than their detractors gave them credit for being. I wish more SF writers would try their hands at writing alternate history stories where Sarajevo either did not happen or WW I had had different endings than the one we saw in our history.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I tried to upload a note here today comparing S.M. Stirling to Poul Anderson, but it was too long to be accepted. I'll be writing another article based on my original effort this weekend.
Sean
Sean,
Outstanding!
Paul.
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