I am learning more about how near future thrillers can intersect with alternative history fiction. Instead of technological innovations, such novels can involve fictional political leaders. Thus, in Frederick Forsyth's
The Devil's Alternative, published in 1979 but set in 1982, Yuri Andropov has been head of the KGB but has not become Russian Premier whereas, in Forsyth's
Icon, published in 1996 but set in 1999, Andropov has been Premier. Yet Sir Nigel Irvine features in both works. Novels involving Sir Nigel can be regarded as a series but with the qualification that their political background changes. They are not set in quite the same timeline.
Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time, published in 1990, mentions Gorbachev. The Time Patrol series began in 1955. Time Patrollers must have known about Gorbachev back then and even earlier. Their milieu HQ is in 1890-1910. But they did not happen to mention Andropov or Gorbachev in any conversations recorded by Poul Anderson!
8 comments:
They wouldn't mention Andropov or Gorbachev, because in the earlier stories Poul sedulously avoided (very cleverly) saying anything about the later 20th century!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The closest Anderson came to making "predictions" or "statements of fact" about the future were in THERE WILL BE TIME. And he was careful to say he did not believe them. All the same, that blasted introduction to THERE WILL BE TIME worried me for years and years!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I hope some surviving drafts and notes about THERE WILL BE TIME has survived, so interested students of Anderson could trace out how he wrote that book.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the early TIME PATROL stories don't give the -impression- of avoiding the later 20th century. That's because there are comments -- but they're extremely general. "This was a tragic era", etc. Mostly they're saying "this era has history", effectively. Which is always going to be true!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Unless a writer could actually predict the future, they, like Anderson, had to be carefully non specific! The one time he did not, as in THERE WILL BE TIME, he wrote with alarming convincingness!
Ad astra! Sean
I get around that by making everything an 'alternate history'. That's what happens to stories set in the near future anyway, so why not start off that way?
(Comment by SM Stirling.)
Frederick Forsyth clearly has fun with his background info. In THE DEVIL'S ALTERNATIVE (1979), all the politicians' names are fictional. The British PM is Joan Carpenter and COBRA is UNICORNE. Sir Nigel Irvine heads SIS/MI6 for Carpenter but, in a later book, turns out to have headed it for Thatcher!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I know you prefer to write most (or all?) of your stories set in alternate worlds. But I see nothing wrong with an occasional story starting in OUR timeline before it inevitably becomes a de facto alternate world work.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment