Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Better?

"Eric Flint, comparing Anderson to Joe DiMaggio, 'who,' as he put it, 'never did anything in baseball better than anyone else, but always did everything superbly well,' thought that Anderson was less appreciated than, for example, Robert A. Heinlein for that reason."
-Hank Davis, PLANETS AND PROFITS IN Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. ix-xvi AT p. xv.
 
(The Van Rijn Method is Volume I of The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled and introduced by Hank Davis.)
 
I had to reread that sentence to check first whether it worked out as a compliment (just) and secondly whether I agreed with it (no). Surely Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is qualitatively better than either of its two nearest rivals, Heinlein's Future History or Larry Niven's Known Space History?
 
Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" is perhaps the most involved circular causality story. However, overall, Anderson's treatment of time travel, including both paradoxes, is far more comprehensive than Heinlein's. I cannot say that the Time Patrol is the best time travel series because I do not really know any other time travel series. 
 
There is post-Anderson cosmic sf that I have not read. I can only ask those who have read works in this category whether any such novels are as imaginative, as scientifically informed and as well-written as Anderson's Genesis? (Maybe.)

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

What Eric Flint said about Anderson comes across to me as damning with faint praise! And I agree PA's Technic series is QUALITATIVELY better than either Heinlein's Future History or Niven's Known Space.

I have read some post-Anderson SF, and I liked best David Wingrove's CHUNG KUO series, despite some reservations. Alas, it was cancelled after eight volumes published (apparently for lack of enough sales).

Ad astra! Sean