A Myth Of A Star Rover

"Later ages wove a myth about Roan Tom. He became their archetype of those star rovers who fared forth while the Long Night prevailed."
-Poul Anderson, "A Tragedy of Errors" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 455-540.

These opening sentences impart two significant items of information about this story as we begin to read it. First, it is to be set during the post-Imperial "Long Night." Secondly, it is narrated from a much longer perspective, at a time when a "star rover" of the Long Night has become a "myth."

The first two major "future histories," The Shape Of Things To Come by HG Wells and Last And First Men by Olaf Stapledon, are fictional text books whereas an American Heinleinian future history is a series of connected short stories and novels covering several generations of fictional history. The future historical perspective is enhanced if, as here, a story begins by locating itself within the fictional chronology of the series. This story is set at a time after the Terran Empire but before those "ages" in which Roan Tom had become a myth. After the long "Flandry period" sequence, a lot more time suddenly flashes past the reader.

Another pivotal Technic History story, "The Star Plunderer," is preceded by a historical introduction as are the twelve Technic History installments collected as The Earth Book Of Stormgate. In fact, the historical status of "A Tragedy of Errors" is reinforced even more by the short italicized introductory passage that precedes the two opening sentences quoted above. This italicized passage refers to and quotes from the man who was King of England at the time of Sir Christopher Wren, designer of St. Paul's Cathedral. Thus, we contemplate even more history, past as well as future.

The other, equally legitimate, way to commence a fictional narrative is to take the reader directly into the point of view of a protagonist. The remaining three post-Imperial installments of the Technic History take this approach.