A series of any length shows its characters aging unless an author arbitrarily decrees that his characters will not age while the world changes around them but I regard that as unacceptable. Some tricks or jokes with chronology and age are acceptable but not mere denial of the aging process. The best such joke is Ian Fleming's second last James Bond novel - it contradicts dates as given in earlier volumes but then informs us that those volumes, written by a former colleague and friend of Commander Bond, were inaccurate. An author should closely control such details. I am reading John Grisham's seven Theodore Boone juvenile novels. Theodore is thirteen in Volume I and only four months elapse between that volume and the end of Volume III. Agatha Christie made problems for herself because Hercules Poirot began his lengthy series already retired from the Belgian police force.
In sf, some characters have access to anti-aging processes. For as long as we read about him, Poul Anderson's Manson Everard remains based in the twentieth century, from 1954 to 1990. He spends an unknown amount of time in other periods, some of them not in this timeline, but remains physically unaged thanks to future medical treatment. However, how much does he age mentally? Time Patrolmen seem to look forward to no retirement.
Dominic Flandry advances from his teens to his sixties but is well-preserved thanks to regular exercise and antisenescence treatment. David Falkayn advances from teens to middle-age and greater maturity. In "Wingless," he is a grandfather but remains off-stage. Nicholas van Rijn begins his series already old, then ages even more...
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And we do see Anderson using unaging characters in some of his stories, such as WORLD WITHOUT STARS, THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS, and FOR LOVE AND GLORY. Well, not quite that unaging in FLAG, because people in that story's timeline have to periodically undergo rejuvenating treatments to prevent/reverse physical old age.
While we don't see mention of Time Patrol agents retiring, I am sure that happens sometimes. Because I am certain some agents become emotionally and mentally exhausted by their work, become "burned out." When that happens it's wise to retire them from being field agents.
Like Dominic Flandry I do regular, daily exercises. And, also like him, I often find myself agreeing with him on how boring such exercises are! But necessary, I know, for one's good health. Alas, we don't have Technic style antisenescence--anything like that is probably at least a century in the future.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: ditto on exercises.
On series: you have to be careful when you're setting them up that you don't run out of room -- that happened to Patrick O'Brien, to Fleming, and to a number of other authors.
One of the best precautions is just to give your characters kids...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
We agree, exercises are necessary but TEDIOUS! (Smiles)
And not just to the authors you listed, but also to Larry Niven's Known Space stories, before he opened up that "timeline" to other writers.
Characters having kids? We certainly see that in your Emberverse series. Plus, Anderson started to show us that with Flandry's daughter Diana in THE GAME OF EMPIRE. Unfortunately, that's the only time we see her, the author wanted to turn to other themes.
Ad astra! Sean
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