Steve Matuchek broadcasts to other "...time streams..." (p. 1) even though such alternative timelines remain hypothetical as yet. He says that "...parallel worlds..." (p. 2), if they exist, must:
be fundamentally linked;
derive from a common source;
be embedded in the same matrix;
have a common destiny;
be diverse battlegrounds for "...the war of Law and Chaos..." (p. 2) which "...is older than creation...." (p. 3)
Having "...learned certain things...," Matuchek's people "...ought to broadcast the lesson and the warning." (p. 2)
What things, lesson and warning? Whatever they are, they sound urgent:
"Better too much information than too little. This is more than vital to you." (p. 3)
Why is the information vital to other universes?
More after food.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Maybe the vital information Steven Matuchek was trying to "broadcast" was that God and Satan are REAL beings. That the Adversary is unyieldingly hostile to mankind and all other intelligent races. And we do see people from Matuchek's timeline, including his own daughter, somehow traveling to other universes (see the Old Phoenix interludes in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST).
Sean
Sean,
Yes, inhabitants of the goetic universe confirm the existence of other universes and start to travel between them in later volumes.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
In terms of "internal chronology," IF I can use that phrase in this context, I would list the books as seen below.
THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS
OPERATION CHAOS
OPERATION LUNA
A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST
I thought of placing A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST after OPERATION CHAOS. But we see Valeria Matuchek as an adult in TEMPEST, and she was still a teenager in LUNA. But I'm not sure where to place the two Old Phoenix short stories.
Sean
Sean,
I agree with your order for your reason. I think a 5th vol should be THE OLD PHOENIX AND OTHER UNIVERSE:
"The House of Sorrows"
"Eutopia"
"House Rule"
"Losers' Night"
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I like your suggestion and agree with it. I think you meant THE OLD PHOENIX AND OTHER UNIVERSES? These short stories all deal, one way or another, with alternate universes. Perhaps a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON should have the two OPERATION books in one volume?
And the Old Phoenix sequence (including the novels) can actually be said to "tie in" with Anderson's Technic Civilization. Which I thought amazing! Because we see Nicholas van Rijn in "House Rule."
That is perhaps not so surprising. Because Technic Civilization descended directly from OUR civilization. It would of course be familiar with the alternate universe speculations of Poul Anderson, L. Sprague DeCamp, S.M. Stirling, etc.
And the allusions in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS to the work of John K. Hord is yet another point of contact Technic Civilization has with ours.
Sean
Sean,
Yes, -S. "Losers' Night" lists Valeria Matuchek among great women so this story is a summit of the entire sequence.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I remember the mention of Valeria Matuchek. Albeit, it was seeing Winston S. Churchill and Queen Mary I in "Losers' Night" which stuck in my mind. I'm also inclined to think the narrator of the story was Poul Anderson!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I want to revise one of my suggestions. I now think it would be better, in any COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON, to place THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS and OPERATION CHAOS in one volume. And the next volume would have OPERATION LUNA and A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST. Mostly because I don't think THREE HEARTS is quite long enough to comprise a separate volume in a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS.
Sean
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