heroic fantasy
historical fantasy
historical fiction
historical fiction with fantasy elements
historical science fiction
This is such a broad spectrum, extending from the mythical past to concretely realized historical periods with or without sf elements, that it really splits into two or three distinct groups united only by the past as opposed to the present or the future.
Anderson's many fictional futures include:
his two major future history series, both accepting the sf cliche of "hyperspace" but doing something interesting with it;
his shorter future history series, mainly Kith and Rustum, which assume slower than light interstellar travel.
My main current point is that, when I am rereading any one part of Anderson's vast Past and Future canon, I am reluctant to leave it and to return to any of the others. Recently, we have been inside the rather diffuse "Directory" slower than light scenario but it becomes necessary to move on.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm not sure how clearly you can differ "historical fantasy" from "historical fiction with fantasy elements." I thought of Anderson's THE KING OF YS and MOTHER OF KINGS as examples of works being mostly straight historical fiction with some elements of fantasy mixed in. And as a contrast both THE GOLDEN SLAVE and ROGUE SWORD is pure historical fiction. As is THE LAST VIKING.
Maybe THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN is an example of what you mean by "historical fantasy"?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is. It was you that described YS as historical fiction with elements f fantasy.
Paul.
One of the problems with writing historical fiction -without- fantasy elements is that it really doesn't get at the psychological foundations of the characters.
If you take a "naturalistic" approach, you're going to find it difficult to look through eyes of people who, for example, believed implicitly -- without ever questioning it -- in things like divine intervention, supernaturally directed luck, witchcraft, and so forth.
As Lewis (shrewdly) points out, a medieval European looking up at the night sky didn't see what we see in any real sense.
We see distant suns in infinite space.
He saw lights in crystal spheres pushed by angels. If he was an educated man, he knew that the world was a few thousand years old and the Earth was a sphere... at the center of it.
In James Blish's single historical novel, DOCTOR MIRABILIS, an educated Englishman "knows" that a comet is not a portent of evil but just a vaporous disturbance in the upper atmosphere.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Yes, I was the one who suggested regarding THE KING OF YS as historical fiction with some elements of fantasy mixed in.
Mr. Stirling: I think, in THE GOLDEN SLAVE and ROGUE SWORD, Anderson did a better job than most historical fiction writers have done getting into the minds of how people in the past thought and believed.
I would also argue that educated people in the past had known, since Eratosthenes, of both the size and shape of the Earth. In fact, the Spanish critics of Columbus' plans for sailing west to India and China protested he was underestimating the distances involved.
For a time, esp. during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile, Spain was at the forefront of medieval astronomy, producing such things as the Alfonsine Tables.
On clear nights, when I look at the stars I know they are distant suns, and I wonder who and what is out there. Maybe the Webb telescope will finally give us information along those lines!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, they knew the Earth was a sphere; but they also thought that it was at the center of the universe, and that the universe wasn't much bigger than the Earth-Moon system.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, meaning the astronomy of Claudius Ptolemy. As more and more observations were made, it became harder to fit them into Ptolemaic astronomy. Hence the work of Copernicus was important in providing a simpler framework. A framework vindicated by later astronomers.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, that was the early part of the Scientific Revolution.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Which reminds me of what Anderson believed was necessary for a true science to arise, in IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? and "Delenda Est."
Ad astra! Sean
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