Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History should definitely be collected in two omnibus volumes, covering the STL and FTL periods, respectively. Thus Volume I would begin with "Marius" and end with "Brake" whereas Volume II would begin with "Gypsy" and end with "The Chapter Ends." Furthermore, if their titles, covers, blurbs and introductions gave no indication that these two volumes comprised a single series, then how soon would a reader realize that the FTL volume was a sequel to the STL volume? Indeed, would he realize it?
The opening FTL stories, "Gypsy" and "Star Ship," make no reference to the earlier history and, if anything, "Star Ship" implies a different Galactic scenario. For previous blog discussion of "Star Ship," see:
Star Ship
Star Ship II
Star Ship III
Early Interstellar Travel
Early Interstellar Travel II
Star Ship In Starship
Lost Starships
Between The Dark Ages
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The thought this blog piece mostly inspired was that a FTL drive contradicts the "new mathematics" of Valti and the "pyschotechnics" developed from it. Because the existence of many human colonies over parts of the galaxy creates so many unknowns and unpredictable factors that psychodynamics could never cover them all. Indeed, we see that happening even during the STL period.
Ad astra! Sean
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