Thursday 3 March 2022

From Anthologies To Collections

I do not go for original anthologies, themed or otherwise. I might get a copy of such an anthology for one story by one author and not read the rest. So it is good when a story written for such an anthology is republished in a collection by its author. Look how good Poul Anderson's seven Roger-Elwood-edited stories are:

the two Technic History stories are in The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

the one Maurai story is in Maurai And Kith;

the four Rustum stories are in New America.

Three collections are more convenient than seven anthologies.

The Technic History is enhanced by the inclusion of two juvenile short stories, one in the Polesotechnic League sub-series, the other in the Ythrians sub-series. The four Continuum contributions double the length of the history of Rustum. The Maurai story, the third in the series, again set generations later, presents further progress because the Maurai now have some jet aircraft whereas such aircraft had been legendary at the time of the second story, "Progress."

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I don't entirely agree. Collections of SF stories by multiple authors, whether or not linked by a theme, can be useful by showing us POVs different from those our favorite writers.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I agree they can but I am just less interested in reading them.

Paul.