-back cover blurb on Poul Anderson, Rogue Sword (New York, 1960).
"The barbarians in their long ships waiting at the edge of the Galaxy...
"...waited for the ancient Terran Empire to fall..."
-back cover blurb on Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds (London, 1973).
And, if you find it implausible that history will repeat itself on that scale, then you can also read Anderson's Genesis (2000) which presents a post-organic interstellar future.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And as readers will soon see if they read ROGUE SWORD, the declining Eastern Roman Empire of the early 1300's was indeed being all too literally torn and hacked at by ferocious enemies!
I'm a bit puzzled by the rest of this blog piece of yours. Do you truly think it's that implausible for barbarians to conquer or overrun an advanced civilization? Even one that had FTL star travel? I myself don't think that is so unlikely! Recall how Poul Anderson gave some detailed thought in the revised version of "Tiger By The Tail" to how barbarians could be a danger to a civilization.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Some readers think that the Roman Empire projected onto an interstellar scale is implausible.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
ABSENT some kind of FTL drive, I would agree. But if FTL is ever possible, I think some kind of interstellar empire would be possible. Because the technology necessary for enabling that would be available. Heck, it would not even have to be called and "empire." Drake and Stirling, in their THE GENERAL books, has the interstellar realm which once ruled the planet Bellevue being the Terran FEDERATION.
My point being, humans being what they are, I can imagine many different kinds political arrangements being tried out. And if readers think one possibility, the Imperial form, is implausible, then they need to give some thought to explaining why they think so, rather than just dismissing it.
Ad astra! Sean
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