Monday 27 March 2023

Two Novels And Two Short Stories

 
Robert Heinlein's Future History
"If This Goes On -": the Second American Revolution.
"Coventry" and "Misfit": two aspects of the post-Revolutionary Covenant.
Methuselah's Children: a further crisis in the Covenant.

Poul Anderson's Technic History
Satan's World: an external threat to Technic civilization.
"A Little Knowledge" and "Lodestar": internal problems of the Polesotechnic League.
Mirkheim: the first civil war in the League.

"Lodestar" divides into three stories:

trader team;
van Rijn;
van Rijn and trader team.

Satan's World is also van Rijn and trader team. It and "Lodestar" are the last two of the four works to feature the trader team/trade pioneer crew. In Mirkheim, van Rijn reassembles the long disbanded team but for private espionage, not for any more trade pioneering. The characters never settle into a long series without any major changes.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

It's a pity Anderson never wrote even one story showing us a trader team not showing Falkayn, Adzel, and Chee Lan. The humans in "The Master Key" attempting to establish trade with the alien natives of Cain comes closest to being another trader team.

Ad astra! Seam

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

And Chee Lan joined another team after Falkayn's was disbanded so there is another potential series.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

A pity we never see Chee Lan as a member of that other team. Oh, well!

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

"Leave them wanting more"...

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Anderson does leave us wanting more--in many of his stories and novels!

And you do as well, in many of your stories! Such as that tantalizingly, legally unpublishable novel of yours: UNTO US A CHILD.

Ad astra! Sean

Jim Baerg said...

"And you do as well, in many of your stories! Such as that tantalizingly, legally unpublishable novel of yours: UNTO US A CHILD."

Well that is a tantalizing bit of information.
Does anyone care to elaborate?
Sean: How are you even aware of this?

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

UNTO US A CHILD was Stirling's planned sequel to DRAKON, his fourth Draka novel. And I THINK I first came across that about 24 years ago in those advertisements sometimes seen at the ends of books about forthcoming new works. My understanding is that legal complications with one of his publishers has prevented that book from being published.

Ad astra! Sean