Original Stories Or Shared Universes

In the 1950s, Poul Anderson wrote original stories for particular magazine markets. Thus, e.g., "Tiger By The Tail" and "Margin Of Profit," which became the bases of his Dominic Flandry and Nicholas van Rijn series and thus also of his major future history series.

Much later, he was invited to contribute to other authors' shared universes. Thus, e.g.:

three Man-Kzin Wars stories (two were collected in a single volume and the third could be added to a later edition);

two installments of Isaac's Universe, which were adapted to become the bases of an independent novel, For Love And Glory.

I used to speculate about shared universes before they existed, thinking that multiple authorship would add substance to a future history series. Now, however, I prefer single author future histories like Heinlein's and Anderson's.

James Blish argued that it would be too constricting if an author were to confine his entire output to a single series, especially since scientific advances overtake any sf premises. Tolkien made a life-long work out of Middle Earth but that was set in the past, not the future, and Blish was not a Tolkien fan, preferring ER Eddison. It would be even more constricting if a team of authors were to confine all or a major part of their output to a single shared series.

Anderson's entirely original series are far more significant and substantial than any of his contributions to shared universes.