"Gypsy" introduces the Nomads who are important later.
"Star Ship" introduces the planet Khazak, which is never mentioned again, and also refers to Galactic Coordinators who schedule expansion into particular regions of space centuries in advance.
"The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb" introduce the planet Nerthus with its single city, Stellamont, both important later.
If Anderson had not used Nerthus and Stellamont in "Virgin Planet" and The Peregrine, then "The Acolyte" and "The Green Thumb" would not have seemed to connect in any other way with the Psychotechnic History.
Uncle Gunnar says:
"'In the early days, men did settle on planets with primitive native races. It only led to conflict in which man, though always the victor, often paid a heavy price.'"
-"The Green Thumb," p. 26.
But these are still the early days, according to the Chronology. The hyperdrive is invented in 2784. "The Acolyte" and "The Green Thumb" are set in 3000. And, even with faster than light travel, we are talking about colonizations and conflicts spread across interstellar distances.
Gunnar also says:
"'I've seen races like his - here and there in the Galaxy -...'" (p. 27)
How much of the Galaxy has he seen?
Interstellar travel is very easy in these two stories. When a woman joins her husband on an engineering assignment on Neptune (Sol VIII), they are able to send their ten-year old son on a space liner to stay with his uncle and aunt on their farm on Nerthus which, we learn from "Virgin Planet," is 300 parsecs away.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
FTL travel does seem too easy and quick in these stories. Again, this seems to be one of those ACCUMULATIVE weaknesses in the Psychotechnic series contributing to Anderson's dissatisfaction with them. We see him handling FTL and issues relating to that kind of traveling more competently and plausibly in the Technic timeline.
Ad astra! Sean
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