Blyndwyr of the Vach Ruethen is the first Merseian that we see if we are reading the Polesotechnic League series in its original book publication order. Satan's World had mentioned that the trader team had been on Merseia. Now, Sheldon Wyler, explaining Blyndwyr's presence on Babur, tells David Falkayn that Merseian aristocrats had resented it when the League shunted them aside to deal instead with the Gethfennu group. Wyler knows that Falkayn is famous in League space but displays no knowledge of the fact that it was Falkayn himself who was the League agent on Merseia that took the decision to include the Gethfennu, organized crime, in the preparations to shield Merseia from the lethal radiation generated by the Valendary supernova. We, the readers, will not know this either until we read the full account in "Day of Burning" in The Earth Book of Stormgate. Wyler does remark to Falkayn that:
"'You of all people should remember the Shenna.'" (p. 99)
Thus, Wyler does display familiarity with the events recounted in the immediately preceding volume, Satan's World. The Earth Book, when we finally get to it, performs the satisfying function of recounting events that had been referred to but had not yet been described in full.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Merseians who were not of the Gethfennu had only themselves to blame for allowing organized crime to gain such a major role in Merseian affairs! So I'm not sympathetic to Blyndwyr and his ilk.
Ad astra! Sean
Did anyone ever ask Anderson how he kept it all straight? Given the breadth of the works set (more or less) in the same fictional universe, the amount of continuity and cross-references are really pretty impressive.
Kaor, Dave!
I am sure it was not easy! IIRC, Anderson mentioned in his essay about future histories having a loose leaf binder overflowing with notes about the Technic series. Some of those notes were probably essays themselves.
I hope the contents of that binder were not discarded by Anderson and survived his death and then the death of his widow. Andersonian obsessives would love to study those papers! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
True that.
Came across a late Anderson story that was an entertaining, quick read, that could have fit in any of several of his series; don't see any obvious connections, but an interesting "humans through an alien's eyes" type of story.
"Strangers" (1988, cover story in Analog):
https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/SF/AN/AN_1988_01.pdf
Kaor, Dave!
I enjoyed reading "Strangers," both in the original magazine and the collection ALL ONE UNIVERSE. Anderson was deliberately vague about how the humans stranded on that marginally habitable planet got there (STL or FTL). But, given the absence of anything in the story connecting it to any of his series, it's best to consider "Strngers" a stand alone story.
Also, I've been puzzled how the aliens in that story could be intelligent beings and have such short lifespans compared to those of the humans, who are not mentioned as having lifespan extending tech. I think those aliens barely live more than two or three Earth years.
I wish I had thought of asking Anderson about that in one of my letters to him!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I got the impression it was about ten years. Tho' on the whole they must be fast learners!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Fast learners? I agree! And possibly the aliens in "Strangers" had somewhat longer lifespans. But the non-human POV narrator clearly had in mind how many (?) generations of his people had known of the humans, who are not mentioned as having appreciably aged. That implied very short lifespans for these non-humans.
Ad astra! Sean
"That implied very short lifespans for these non-humans."
Or that the humans had some sort of life extension. Maybe some genetic engineering from before interstellar travel. That would make STL interstellar travel easier.
The story leaves that question ambiguous.
The humans were there long enough to domesticate their "native" mounts; pseudo-horses. Anderson wrote a fair number of serious works narrated, at least to some degree, by non-humans.
Kaor, Jim and Dave!
Jim: Possibly, but we simply don't know. A conservative inference to make is that those stranded humans don't have any unusually lifespan extending medi tech.
Dave: And domestication of those animals makes me think those humans had been on that planet for what its natives would think many generations.
Ad astra! Sean
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