Saturday 21 March 2020

Tyrian Purple

The Technic History and the Time Patrol are Poul Anderson's two main series, both sf, each about a different aspect of history, and it is always good to connect their texts.

"While Solomon was in all his glory and the Temple was a-building, Manse Everard came to Tyre of the purple."
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 229.

"Smoke drifted into a Tyrian sky where a few clouds wandered."
-"The Trouble Twisters," IX, p. 173.

"...a cloud scudded through the purple sky above..."
-X, p. 185.

If we wonder what a "Tyrian sky" is, we just need to keep reading. Everard did not come to the Tyre of the Technic History timeline. That city is in these two timelines and no doubt also in others. But we think about Everard when we read about Falkayn (IX) and Chee Lan (X).

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I don't think I ever thought of Manse Everard the last time I read "The Trouble Twisters"! (Smiles)

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
You should!
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree, but I tend to focus on the story I happened to be reading. But I'm trying to be alert to Andersonian allusions in Stirling's latest: SHADOWS OF ANNIHILATION.

Ad astra! Sean