Wednesday, 9 August 2023

Series: Anderson (1)

After the opening instalment, "The Saturn Game," the second story in Poul Anderson's Technic History is "Wings of Victory," which is set during the first Grand Survey, therefore earlier than the founding of either the Solar Commonwealth or the Polesotechnic League. Nevertheless, this story incorporates enough background references to place firmly it within the Technic future history series.

"In youth he'd done excellent field work, especially in the trade-route cultures of Cynthia..."
-Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 75-102 AT p. 83.

"'...hexapodal vertebrates liberating the forelimbs to grow hands and becoming centauroids, as on Woden.'"
-ibid., p. 93.

"...a haymow and pitchforks which, despite every strangeness of detail, reminded him of a backwoods colony on Hermes that he'd visited once..."
-ibid., p. 96.

Cynthians, Wodenites and Hermetians play crucial roles later. Also, "Wings of Victory" is about first contact with Ythri...

Anyone who does not understand these references needs to read the Technic History. 
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1 comment:

  1. Sean M. Brooks12 August 2023 at 20:02

    Kaor, Paul!

    I think of the Solar Commonwealth arising shortly before or by 2100, with the FTL hyperdrive being invented not long afterwards. It would take some years to plan and find/build the ships needed for the first Grand Survey. So I think the Commonwealth already existed in "Wings of Victory."

    Ad astra! Sean

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