HG Wells wrote a fictional history of the period, 1933-2106.
Olaf Stapledon, following Wells, wrote a complete future history, then a cosmic history.
CS Lewis wrote a theological reply to Wells' and Stapledon's anthropocentric future histories.
Robert Heinlein wrote not a fictional historical text book but a series of stories and novels covering successive future periods.
James Blish wrote a future history series and a post-Lewis theological trilogy.
Poul Anderson wrote several future history series, addressed theological issues and continued the stories of the magic swords, Tyrfing and Cortana. (See also here.)
SM Stirling's alternative future history series features emergent deity, eclectic theology and the magical sword, Kusanagi.
Thus, two authors, Anderson and Stirling, have written both about magic swords and about future histories. Kusanagi is in Stirling's Emberverse History whereas Anderson's wielders of magic swords and inhabitants of future histories have to meet in the inter-cosmic inn, the Old Phoenix.
Lewis comes close because, in Volume III of his Ransom Trilogy, Merlin returns although Arthur, wielder of Excalibur, remains on Venus. Volume III, set in a near future, is not itself a future history but does address the issue of the ultimate future of mankind. Volume II had included a prophecy of cataclysmic events twenty thousand years hence.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
By and large, I prefer the "tradition" initiated by Robert Heinlein. That is, writing linked stories and novels sharing a common background and covering successive periods of a speculative history.
And I was very interested to find out Japanese legends included stories of a magical sword similar to Excalibur or Cortana, the latter of which we see in Anderson's THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS.
Sean
Sean,
I have added Cortana to the post.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I noticed!(Smiles)
Sean
It's interesting to think what it might be like to have an indisputably magical sword around. As one of the characters says, we live by our myths -- but living -in- them is another matter.
Dear Mr, Stirling,
And what happened to Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne, in your Emberverse books? According to the legend, that too was a magical sword, along with Durindal and Cortana. Might some survivor of the old French royal line, the Capetians, suddenly appear and use it to challenge the British occuppation of post-Change France?
And, of course, there's the Spear of Destiny, one of the regalia of the Holy Roman Emperors, and preserved in Vienna. The Spear allegedly incorporated the lance which pierced the side of Christ as He hung on the Cross. That too has possibilities, esp. against a new caliphate!
But, of course, I knew Joyeuse is simply a surviving part of the French regalia venerated for its associations with Charlemagne and the succeeding kings of France. And, if genuine, the Spear of Destiny is a relic venerated because it too was associated with Christ.
Sean
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