1960-2018

In the 1960s, I read, among many other things, contemporary thrillers by Ian Fleming and John le Carre and futuristic sf by Poul Anderson. Since then, the Cold War has become history and events have overtaken most near future speculations. However, writers of contemporary fiction can keep their current works contemporary and can also write retrospectives like le Carre's The Secret Pilgrim. Meanwhile, events cannot overtake fictions set further in the future and sf authors also write alternative histories like SM Stirling's Draka and Emberverse series.

Fleming died in 1964. Anderson continued writing new future histories until the beginning of the twenty first century. Le Carre, still writing, shows us what Fleming did not, his characters in their old age. SM Stirling is still writing...