Monday 27 November 2023

Anderson And Chandler

My favourite two kinds of sf are future histories and time travel. Poul Anderson excels at both.

We (at least some of us) recently agreed that A. Bertram Chandler's version of Anderson's future historical character, Dominic Flandry, was not authentic. This version of Flandry appeared in an instalment of Chandler's Rim World series - not a future history but a major futuristic series by Chandler.

I find that for years I have owned but not read a copy of The Coils of Time, a time travel novel by Chandler, originally published by Ace Books. My British Bridbooks Publishers paperback edition is undated but cost only £0.20.

Theoretically, I have an interest in reading anything about time travel to check for any new developments of the idea - and there can be new developments. For this reason, I will now read this Chandler novel and particularly to compare it with Anderson's several different treatments of time travel. My expectations are low but you never know.

4 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Ah, yes, I've read that one. It's not -strictly- time travel, you'll find! I thought it was quite amusing.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul: I was able to keep up here last week due to being on holiday. Back to work now and
probably falling behind again here!

Yes, I too was disappointed by Chandler's treatment of Dominic Flandry. I might even go so far as to say that parody of Flandry outraged me!

Mr. Stirling: In fairness I agree I should not let Chandler's treatment of Flandry sour me on his other stories.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean: we all have our off days... 8-).

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Ha! That's too absolutely darn true!

And I greatly enjoyed your "A Slip in Time"! The Manse Everard in that story was faithful to the character Anderson created.

Ad astra! Sean