-Poul Anderson, "The Night Face," IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 541-660 AT I, p. 549.
Sandra Miesel gets the interval between the Time of Troubles and the expedition to Gwydion right in her CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION. I had misremembered this passage as stating that Gwydion had been isolated throughout both the Commonwealth and the Empire periods but twelve hundred years is a very long time, nevertheless. So the Commonwealth is remembered as well as the League.
I agree with Jerry Pournelle's paradoxical remark quoted in the blurb reproduced in the attached image.
Real life continues to interfere with blogging.
Other reading: John Grisham's The Exchange is the sequel to his The Firm. I had wanted a sequel to The Firm but done in a different way but Grisham has done it his way and he is the creator here, not me. I have heard it said that sequels don't work which is nonsense. I know several sequels that are better than the originals and Poul Anderson's canon is a testimony to the power of sequels. Imagine only one van Rijn story, only one Time Patrol story etc. So referring to Grisham has brought us back to Anderson. This post has rambled and looks like being the only post for today. I will aim to finish reading The Exchange before turning in. Meanwhile, in blog terms, Roan Tom is still on Nike.
Onward and outward.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
My revision of Sandra Meisel Chronology of Technic Civilization dates the Time of Troubles to AD 2600-2700, during which the Commonwealth was breaking up. So Gwydion lost contact with Earth sometime during this century. Either I or Meisel dated THE NIGHT FACE to 3900, which fits well with what you quoted from the story about Gwydion being isolated for 1200 years.
Btw, I think Gwydion had probably been colonized for 200-300 years before losing touch with the Commonwealth.
Still, I wonder if 3900 is too soon for THE NIGHT FACE, that it might fit better in the Technic timeline if we dated the story two or three centuries later?
Ad astra! Sean
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