Tuesday 1 May 2018

Fictional Narratives Of Different Lengths

Short Story
Novelette
Novella
Novel
Differences

I link to these definitions and differentiations first because Poul Anderson wrote all these forms and secondly because the contents page of The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, specifies in brackets the form and size of each work. Thus, we are informed that:

Satan's World is a novel;
"A Little Knowledge" is a short story;
the remaining five works are novellas.

I would have appreciated the same information for all seven volumes. The Dominic Flandry series, before it was incorporated into the Saga, comprised six novels and two collections. Of the seven works collected in these two volumes:

"Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies" and "The Game of Glory" are short stories;
"A Message in Secret" and "A Plague of Masters" were each previously published as one part of an Ace Double;
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" was published both as part of an Ace Double and as a single volume;
"The Warriors from Nowhere" is a short story.

My rule of thumb for a novel is 100+ pages.

The single volume "Hunters of the Sky Cave," entitled We Claim These Stars!, is 121 pages.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume V, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire, "A Message in Secret" is 57 pages.

In Vol VI, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra:

"The Plague of Masters" is 145 pages;
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" is 151 pages.

So are there really eight Dominic Flandry novels?

10 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree with you defining a novel as a story which is 100 or more pages long. And I went thru the list of the Dominic Flandry stories, to see which of them were 100 or more pages long. Yes, I came up as well with eight Flandry novels. Albeit, we only see Flandry in three or four chapters of THE GAME OF EMPIRE. His daughter Diana is the central character of that story.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Clearly word-count is more important than page-count. Look how much the page-count of "Hunters of the Sky Cave" varies between editions.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I noticed that as well. But I put that down as at least partly due to some editions using smaller or larger fonts. If larger, then we will see more pages.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Yes but it means that our 100+ pages criterion is Heisenberg.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!


I admit to not knowing what you meant by mentioning Heisenberg.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I've been forgetting to ask, which is your favorite/s among the Dominic Flandry stories?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
There is a "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle." I have seen "Heisenberg" used to mean "uncertain."
Favorite Flandry? A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Now I understand what you meant by "Heisenberg."

Yes, A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS is deserving of being any Anderson's fan's favorite Flandry story.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

SF novels have gotten much longer over the past two generations. 50-70,000 words used to be standard; nowadays it's twice that.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

I have noticed that as well. Originally, novels were shorter because that was what the publishers wanted. One reason why I have so much admiration for Poul Anderson was because of how MUCH he was able to pack into short novels like THE REBEL WORLDS.

Sean