Friday, 7 February 2020

Not Reading But Hearing

Can we call someone who lives in a particular timeline a "timeliner"? Technic History timeliners hear the stories that we read.

Coya Conyon:

"'...when I was a youngster...I'd hear about the latest adventure of the fabulous Muddlin' Through team...'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT I, p. 33.

Diana Crowfeather:

"'...even we, on our remote and lately embattled frontier, have heard the fame of Wodenites, from the days of Adzel the Wayfarer to this very hour.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 201.

Fr. Francis Xavier Axor:

"'I have, yes, I have encountered tales of Admiral Flandry's exploits...'"
-ibid., p. 213.

In The Game Of Empire:

"Westward Diana could see no horizon..." (p. 195)
"'I'm Diana Crowfeather.'" (p. 203)
"'Oh, my father's Dominic Flandry.'" (p. 212)

That third statement makes a difference, seventeen pages into the text.

The future historical background references that I did not list in Olga's Landing Old Quarter are:

Foredwellers/Ancients/Elders/Others/Old Shen/Builders
Chereionites
Aeneas
Dominic Flandry
Starkad
the Breakup
the Commonwealth

Poul Anderson explains why certain characters were introduced in the Technic History:

"...the exploratory team [van Rijn] organized - David Falkayn, Chee Lan, Adzel and Muddlehead, their ship's insufferable computer. They showed up because it wasn't logical that the old man should have all the adventures."
-Poul Anderson, AFTERWORD IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 681-682 AT p. 681.

"At last the time came for a new generation to take over the saga..."
-INTRODUCTION IN Flandry's Legacy, pp. 191-192 AT p. 191.

That new generation are Flandry's daughter and Dragoika's son and it is unfortunate that Anderson was able to write only one novel about them.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And that new generation also included Emperor Gerhart's son Crown Prince Karl. I too regret how Anderson did not write one or two more stories featuring that younger generation.

Ad astra!