in the past;
in the future;
in the past as experienced by time travelers from the future.
Thus, perhaps the Time Patrol series is a kind of synthesis of historical fiction with future history. I am currently rereading Mother Of Kings (historical fiction) and my early blog posts, many of them about the History of Technic Civilization (a future history).
This dual reading highlights the differences between historical fiction, especially when it incorporates elements of fantasy, and hard sf but also highlights the unity of Anderson's approach whether to the Holy Roman Empire or to the Terran Empire. He deploys encyclopedic knowledge of history, mythology, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology and cosmogony. Terrans have their crises and palace revolutions but are not just Romans splattered across the galaxy. For a start, they must understand and relate to intelligent beings adapted to extrasolar planetary environments: fliers; aquatics etc.
As Anderson comments in the title of one of his collections, this is All One Universe but it has many facets and his works focus on each facet, from a drow-haunted dolmen to a remote star cluster, in microscopic detail.
No comments:
Post a Comment