Thursday, 18 January 2024

Aenean And Avalonian Continuity

Reading Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization in chronological order of fictional events in Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, we find Ythrians and Aeneans exploring Avalon in the third instalment in Volume I and an Avalonian Ythrian on Aeneas in the second instalment in Volume IV. One of the Aenean explorers on Avalon, Peter Berg, is a Christian and a graduate of the University of Nova Roma. The later instalment, set on Aeneas, presents a detailed description of the University of Nova Roma and also displays deeply ingrained religious belief on Aeneas. We are impressed by this close future historical continuity between two such widely separated instalments. We also realize that these two instalments together with four others featuring Ythrians were published in 1973 and that the only other Ythrian instalment was published in 1972. We are impressed by such a concerted burst of creativity while also recognising that this sequence of narratives about Ythrians is a comparatively small part of the whole Technic History.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree. And I might have added that Anderson's Ythrians were partly inspired by his longtime editor, John Campbell, shortly before he died.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

As was Mirkheim.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Campbell also helped to inspire MIRKHEIM? Either I had not known that or I forgot.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Anderson says it in his Afterword to "Lodestar" in the SAGA.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But it's not in RISE OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE?

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

No.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Thought so. I only have the 1977 Berkley edition of MIRKHEIM.

Ad astra! Sean