Did Anderson's earliest, unpublished version of the Chronology include stories-to-be-told and did some of these, like Heinlein's, remain untold? There are gaps that could have been filled but Anderson, for sound reasons, decided not to continue with this future history series. To my knowledge, he is the only writer of multiple future histories. James Blish did something similar although on a smaller scale. Blish's main future history series fills one omnibus volume whereas Anderson's fills seven and could have been extended indefinitely. Blish has one historical novel, one fantasy novel and one futuristic sf novel in a single trilogy whereas Anderson wrote several volumes of historical fiction and of fantasy and many more of sf.
"The Pirate" and The Peregrine comprise a good sub-section of the Psychotechnic History that is entirely removed from the opening instalments, "Marius," "Un-Man" etc. As Sandra Miesel writes right at the end of the History:
"Humankind's saga flows on." (Volume 3, p. 215)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One of these days one of us should track down and obtain a copy of that issue of STARTLING STORIES and find out for sure WHICH stories Anderson included in his Psychotechnic chronology.
Ad astra! Sean
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