historical fiction;
historical science fiction, e.g., time travelers in the Time Patrol series and mutant immortals in The Boat Of A Million Years;
alternative history fiction;
future histories.
What happened and why? What might have happened? What would have happened if (different hypotheses)? What will happen? Will history repeat itself? Is it cyclical? Is every social system fatally flawed? Can freedom be maintained? Are new directions possible? Are diversity and dynamism the highest human values? What will be the long term consequences of technology? Does Poul Anderson leave any stone unturned?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In at least one sense, Anderson was more pessimistic than you are. That is, he was skeptical that any single sociopolitical system could last indefinitely. And he agreed with me when I wrote in a letter that the human was flawed and imperfect, which he attributed to either Original Sin or mankind being an imperfectly evolved species of chimpanzees.
And if freedom is to have a chance of lasting or arising again, then human societies will need to be dynamic and diverse, not static and complacent.
No, Anderson does not leave many stones unturned or possibilities unexamined. And many of those other stones are being turned over S.M. Stirling, a worthy successor of Poul Anderson. I am really looking forward to Stirling's third BLACK CHAMBER book!
Ad astra! Sean
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