Beyond The End

Although a future history series cannot avoid having a last installment, it is possible to conclude a text in such a way that:

"...even after the last line the feeling remains of the story still rushing on into the magic distance of the universe."

- as A.E. van Vogt commented on Larry Niven's other future history, A World Out Of Time (New York, 1977).

Sandra Miesel performs this task for Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

"To Earth there's no returning. She vanished with the childhood of our race. Yet a poet once said, 'No matter how far we range, the salt and rhythm of her tides will always be in our blood.'  One chapter has ended. Humankind's saga flows on."

-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), p. 216.

 

Blog readers can think of other examples. Three from Blish:

Chronology Of The Beep

"Creation began."

 

"...some quiet voice whispered a judgment:

"'It is decided. We abandon the Hegemony of Malis. The men of Earth, the dolphins of Earth, the beadmungen of the twin radioceles, the coming children of the Aaa, and those others of which we know, or which we can foresee - those are the races that will rule with us. This has been written where what is willed must be.'

"Jack Loftus never heard that whisper, nor even dreamed of it. Nor did his great-great-grandchildren. But he already had more than enough reasons for joy."

-James Blish, Mission To The Heart Stars (London, 1980), CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 127.

 

"A great future!"

-Robert Heinlein, "By His Bootstraps" IN Heinlein, The Menace From Earth (London, 1983), pp. 40-87 AT p. 87.

 

OK. This is not just about Poul Anderson's "The Chapter Ends." Don't read just one or a few future histories. Read them all.