I know that I should not apologize for this but I really have got sidetracked from rereading Poul Anderson today by a vigil, a goodwill visit to a mosque, a visit to a friend in hospital and interest in another shared
fictional history. See also
here and
here. In addition to future or alternative histories, authors can also present alternative accounts of what was happening in our timeline but behind the scenes in the late nineteenth century, WWI, WWII, the Cold War etc. And Anderson applied this
retro-history approach to his own Technic History so I have found a connection with Poul Anderson after all.
Maybe a return to the Swedish timeline of
Tau Zero tomorrow - after I have driven Aileen and Yossi to
Leighton Moss (scroll down) and back.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not sure I would call Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories a "retro-history." At least as of now! Because those stories were set in the future of OUR civilization, a speculation about in what direction our civilization might go. S.M. Stirling's two Lords of Creation books (THE SKY PEOPLE and IN THE COURTS OF THE CRIMSON KINGS) seem to be clearer examples of a "retro-history." Also, some of Anderson's Time Patrol stories might be called retro history.
Sean
Sean,
I meant not that the whole Technic History was a retro-history but that, in THE GAME OF EMPIRE, Anderson retro'ed the story of Magnsson's father's defection and the history of the Zacharians.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Aha, now I see what you meant! Yes, the Magnussons and the Zacharians, whom we had never heard of before in the Technic series, were "retroed" into that timeline.
I might have thought the Zacharians a bit of a strain to accept in the Technic stories if it had not been made plain they were a small ethnicity which had never been very prominent. So, in an Empire containing thousands of such communities, it would not be surprising if we had not heard of them before THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Sean
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