The Earth Book:
collects eleven short stories and one novel;
adds introductory passages written by the Avalonian Ythrian, Hloch;
including Hloch's passages, covers the period from the mid-twenty second century to the twenty ninth century;
introduces Adzel, Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn, Ythrians and Merseians.
The Technic Civilization Saga collects an entire future history, including every work in The Earth Book with Hloch's introductions. Thus, at last, the work is complete.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I know you have a special affection for the works of James Blish, but as far as a fictional future feeling "real" goes, I've found Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominium series (with contributions by Larry Niven, S.M. Stirling, and Anderson himself, etc.) to be more convincing than the "Okie" books. And far more so than Asimov's FOUNDATION stories.
I have sometimes wondered why I've found Asimov's FOUNDATION books such fascinating reading when I was a boy. After all, considered in terms of plot development and character depicting, the other authors I cited above (including Blish) were much more satisfactory. To me, the most interesting characters in the original FOUNDATION books were not the heroes, but the alleged villains: Bel Riose and the Mule (or even Cleon II, seen far too briefly).
Sean
Sean:
Salvor Hardin didn't appeal to you at all?
I loved the bit where he explained to the Foundation's Board of Trustees that Lord Dorwin had been stringing them along while firmly committing the Empire to absolutely nothing. His characterization of Dorwin: "I'll admit I had thought his lordship a most consummate donkey when I first met him—but it turned out that he was actually an accomplished diplomat and a most clever man.... Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire."
Kaor, DAVID!
Now that you mentioned it, and I had a chance to think, I agree! The incident involving Salvor Hardin and Lord Dorwin WAS interesting. Yes, it was a good example of a man deliberately making himself look like a food so he could fool those he was negotiating with. He was showing us how dangerous it is to underestimate people. And even Salvor Hardin was deceived for a while!
What Lord Dorwin was trying to do, of course, was to mask for a while the fact of how weak the Galactic Empire had become. In its decline the Empire was losing control of the peripheries of the Galaxy, and Lord Dorwin's job was to minimize the damage this was doing the Empire while not committing the Imperium to anything.
Yes, this chapter of FOUNDATION was one of the more interesting parts of the first volume of the series.
Sean
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