Ulf Markham And Olaf Magnusson

Ulf Markham in the Man-Kzin Wars resembles Olaf Magnusson in the Technic History. However, there has been extensive blog coverage of both so maybe much more is not necessary?

If a multi-authored series is kept consistent, then anything introduced by one author cannot be contradicted by any other. Men win the First Man-Kzin War because they have the hyperdrive whereas the kzinti do not yet. However, the course of the Known Space History requires that the kzinti do acquire the hyperdrive and use it in subsequent Wars.

What Poul Anderson tells us in his first Man-Kzin Wars story is that it was Markham, a human traitor, who gave the kzinti the hyperdrive. That is a big contribution for a guest author to make to a future history series. However, given that Anderson's story was accepted into the series, no subsequent contribution can be allowed to contradict this explanation of kzinti acquisition of the hyperdrive although, of course, other authors might just not refer to it. They have considerable leeway to write completely different kinds of stories in a two-hundred year stretch of Larry Niven's future history. Do I want to follow rereading Anderson's Man-Kzin Wars stories by reading other stories in this sub-series?