Tuesday 26 April 2016

Other Fictional Universes

BLOG UPDATE: The previous three posts have been copied from other blogs to give them wider coverage here. The present post is original to this blog.

"'It would be nice to see that man Stephen Byerly someday be coordinator.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Plato's Cave" IN Martin H Greenberg, Ed., Foundation's Friends (London, 1991), pp. 234-277 AT p. 250.

"'The Empire's in upheaval.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Deserter" IN Jerry Pournelle, John F Carr and Roland Green, Eds., War World: The Burning Eye (New York, 1988), pp. 54-105 AT p. 64.

These two quotations demonstrate that Poul Anderson can be fully at home in other authors' fictional universes. The Empire of the second quotation is neither Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire nor Anderson's own Terran Empire but Jerry Pournelle's First Empire of Man. But Anderson understands the processes in these two universes as well as in his own.

Here is another reference to the Dog and the Wolf:

"...any flourishing ranch draws wolves, once the watchdogs have departed." (The Burning Eye, p. 67)

- and a parallel with Anderson's Technic History:

"Like a receding tide, the withdrawal of the Empire was slow and fitful." (The Burning Eye, p. 68)

"...Irumclaw lay like a piece of wreckage at the edge of the receding tide of Empire."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT p. 204.

I confess to some uncertainty as to what happens at the conclusion of "The Deserter." The narrator leaves two men in a cave and they are not there when he returns... OK. He has connived at their escape - I think.

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I actually have a copy of the first edition of FOUNDATION'S FRIENDS. And I wished a similar volume had been collected in honor of Poul Anderson in 1997, the 50th anniversary of the publication of "Tomorrow's Children."

Very nice, the allusions and parallels written by Poul Anderson which alert readers will see connecting to others of his works.

One of Anderson's The Fleet stories also has tacit conniving being done so that a world no longer directly protected by the Fleet would not be completely abandoned.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
The Fleet? (In a couple of hours, I will be away from the computer for a few days.)
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Poul Anderson contributed several stories to a multi volume series called THE FLEET: "The Only Bed To Lie In" (1988), "Dereliction" (1990), "Kinetic Kill" (1991). I've read the first and third of these stories.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Who created THE FLEET? I still cannot keep up with Poul Anderson.
You can see that I have found a computer in the multi-faith City of Birmingham.
Paul.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Sean!

I believe these are new to me as well. More Anderson stories to read, if I can find them and the time.

Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Nicholas!

I'm addressing this note to both of you, so I won't have to repeat myself.

After some rummaging around, I found the first volume of THE FLEET, ed. by David Drake and Bill Fawcett (Ace: 1988). This contains, along with stories by other authors, Poul Anderson's "The Only Bed To Lie In."

Briefly, the series focuses on a generations long war with ruthlessly brutal non humans. Think the Draka, except for being aliens and having a taste for human meat. There were at least five volumes of THE FLEET stories. But I only have two of them.

And I certainly agree with Paul on how hard it is to keep up with Poul Anderson. I STILL have not read most of the stories and articles I listed in my "Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson" article.

Hope this helps! Seam