If we are reading The Technic Civilization Saga, then we have come across a reference to Shalmuans in "Sargasso of Lost Starships" in the previous volume. If we have been reading Poul Anderson's Technic History in the order of its publication, then we know that, when Dominic Flandry has become a captain, he will have a Shalmuan manservant called Chives.
The Shalmuans that Flandry's ship, the Asieneuve, visits in The Rebel Worlds are not yet space travellers in their own right. A few get off-planet by means of scholarships etc. Of course, we are making allowances for "Sargasso..." as not quite fitting into the main narrative of the Technic History.
3 comments:
Dunno that the two references preclude each other; if the Shalmu described as former enemies-of-the-Ansans-turned-allies-against-the-Empire of Sargasso are the same Shalmu (species, yes; planet(s), maybe not?)
The alternative is that it is not unprecedented in human history that a culture that was (more or less) independent and a peer antagonist at one point became something less at another point; any number of (alleged) "martial races" on the borders of various empires over the centuries, for example. The history of what is today the Indian Army's Madras Regiment, under multiple flags, is an example.
Kaor, Dave!
I think it's easier to think of "Sargasso" as a fiction within the fiction.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Dave!
I don't advocate setting aside "Sargasso." I was thinking that story might best be understood as mostly a fiction embedded among the "historical" narratives that were most of the other stories.
The editors of THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE were not entirely sure how to regard THE MAN WHO COUNTS, as either biographical or historical fiction.
Ad astra! Sean
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