Does Poul Anderson tell us as much about Ythrians and Merseians as J.R.R. Tolkien does about dwarfs and elves? No, because Anderson did not devote his entire fiction writing career to the History of Technic Civilization. Would it have been good if he had done? The Technic History could certainly have been expanded endlessly. But I would want at least the Time Patrol and the King of Ys to be expanded equally.
Middle Earth is a fictional history;
the Technic History is a future history;
the Time Patrol series is history with time travel;
Ys is several historical turning points.
Of Anderson's series, I think that I value these three more than any others.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm inclined to wish Poul Anderson had been just a bit more Tolkienian in writing his Technic Civilization stories. If he had been we would certainly know more about the Polesotechnic League and Old Nick; and Manuel Argos and the Empire he founded. I would have liked a complete listing of the Terran Emperors down till Flandry's time.
I think Poul and Karen Anderson's massive four volume novel THE KING OF YS comes closest, in Anderson's works, to being "Tolkienian." Every volume is long and richly detailed. And while we don't have a complete listing of the Ysan kings, we do have the names of most of the fourth century kings before Gratillonius.
Sean
Post a Comment