Monday 23 September 2019

Contemporary And Beyond

See The Contemporary In The Cosmic.

Is ten years previously still close enough to the time of writing to count as "contemporary"? It is hardly "historical." However, a mere decade can transport us into a different period and World War II is a period unto itself:

"London, 1944. The early winter night had fallen, and a thin cold wind blew down streets which were gulfs of darkness. Somewhere came the crump of an explosion, and a fire was burning, great red banners flapping above the roofs."
-6, p. 54. (For full reference, see the above link.)

Definitely not New York, 1954.

To introduce Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, this opening story also presents three other, very different, periods:

"...the Oligocene period, a warm age of forests and grasslands when man's ratty ancestors scuttled away from the tread of giant mammals."
-2, pp. 13-14.

Victorian London. See In The Past.

Addleton Barrow, 464 A.D.:

"There was a full moon. Under it, the land lay big and lonely, with a darkness of forest blocking out the horizon. Somewhere a wolf howled."
-5, p. 39.

The best time travel writing anywhere, I think.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree, it's hard to think of any other series of time travel stories better or even equal to those of Poul Anderson. I thought of L. Sprague De Camp's LEST DARKNESS FALL, but that was a one off, not part of a series. And Martin Padway was only accidentally thrown into the past.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Completely agree -- Poul had a tremendous sense of time and place.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And I noticed your shout out to De Camp's book in THE ANVIL! (Smiles)

Ad astra! Sean