I accept that "many" was incorrect. I realize that I wrote it because I was thinking not of the fictional timeline but of the real time interval between the publication dates of these two works:
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" (1959)
A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows (1974)
The latter work represents a maturer stage in Anderson's creation of the Technic History. He is no longer merely extending an existing space opera series but also reflecting on the cyclical declines of civilizations. It is as if more time has elapsed. An elegiac speech delivered by Flandry in "Hunters..." prefigures the detailed analysis expounded by Desai in A Knight...
Because the Technic History is a fictional history, it has an internal chronology of fictional events from c. 2055 to c. 7100 but, because it is a human artifact, it also has an external chronology of publication from 1951 to 1985. Thus, the earliest story, set c. 2050, was published very late, in 1981.
For the two chronologies, see Anderson's Technic History.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It shows what a geek I am that I "instinctively" thought in terms of the internal, fictional chronology of the Techic stories!
Yes, WE CLAIM THESE STARS can easily be fitted into the Hordian schema expounded by Chunderban Desai in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. And I quoted several relevant passages from WE CLAIM THESE STARS in other comboxes.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But the internal chronology was right for what we were talking about, how many years between Flandry seeing the young Duke of Mars at the Crystal Moon and meeting his successor at the Coral Palace.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Many thanks! And to make sure there is no misunderstanding, the young Duke of Mars was killed four years after Flandry saw him at the Crystal Moon. And Flandry met his elderly uncle Duke Tetsuo at the Coral Palace eight years after Flandry saw his nephew. By then Emperor Hans had been reigning for six years.
Ad astra! Sean
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