When David Falkayn first appeared as a Polesotechnic League apprentice in "The Three-Cornered Wheel," we little knew the worlds-changing events that would unfold.
Hermes is where Falkayn came from. Avalon is where he wound up. Each of these planets becomes involved in an interstellar war. Hermes is occupied but successfully resists. Avalon is invaded but has lured its invaders into a trap. On Hermes, long-delayed social changes must come after the war. In Flandry's time, Hermes still has a Grand Duke - and one with Imperial ambitions. Avalon must recover from the wreckage left by the Terran War but might have undergone further Ythrianization by the time, centuries later, when Erannath of Stormgate Choth spies on Aeneas.
What a history.
2 comments:
Yup; at any point you can intersect it, it's as lived-in feeling as our actual history, which is quite an accomplishment.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: But the Tamarin house seems to have disappeared as Grand Dukes of Hermes, probably during the chaos of the Time of Troubles. At any rate that was the impression I got from A STONE IN HEAVEN.
The Empire's defeat at Avalon was a FORTUNATE minor setback for Terra. A successful Imperial annexation of that planet would mean there would have been no Ythrian agent from Avalon working for Terra centuries later who was crucial in thwarting Merseian designs on Aeneas.
And I think the human colonists on Avalon would also have affected Ythrians. Such as teaching them how to think more STRATEGICALLY, as was seen in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
Mr. Stirling: I agree! And I think one reason for why the Technic stories have such a solidly lived in feeling came from Anderson's "impulsive" decision, while writing THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, to link the Dominic Flandry stories with those about Old Nick.
Ad astra! Sean
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