Tuesday, 31 October 2023

Questions About The Technic History

Some comments pick at the fabric of Poul Anderson's Technic History.

Is it implausible that van Rijn and Falkayn experience both the glory days and the beginning of the terminal decline of the Polesotechnic League?

Does antigrav make roads on Vixen and river trade on Aeneas and Daedalus redundant?

When were mobile phones invented in the Technic History?

Is it plausible that Aycharaych was able to hoodwink the Merseians for so long?

Are there any more questions like this?

We appreciate the Technic History as, in my opinion, the very best of the American future history series before we begin to unravel its possible inconsistencies.

2 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Well, there are abrupt historical transitions. 1914 comes to mind -- a clear dividing point between two eras, though perhaps that's clearer in retrospect!

What I was finding difficult was the lack of -hints- of the League going astray. One story and that policeman on Luna was helpless before van Rijn; a few years later he's in a position to push him around.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I have to admit the decline of the League seen in "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM was a little too abrupt. If those stories had been set 25 years later (in AD 2526, not 2501 ) it would have been less jarring.

But, even with antisenescence enabling people to live 100/110 years, would a very Old Nick be able to be as active as we see him in MIRKHEIM?

But we should still appreciate Anderson's Technic stories!

Ad astra! Sean