Glimpses Of The Future
A future history series can engage its readers attention by presenting early glimpses of later developments. Julian May's Pliocene Exile Tetralogy, about time travellers in the Pliocene, makes many references to the Metapsychic Rebellion, not described in full until Volume III of her futuristic Galactic Milieu Trilogy. The characters in James Blish's The Quincunx of Time receive messages from periods in their future, including those in two later stories. Alan Moore's Miracleman included in an early issue a much later episode presented out of sequence. The second story in Poul Anderson's The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, is introduced by Hloch who refers to the Terran War, not scheduled to occur until the concluding instalment in Volume III, Rise of the Terran Empire. This is all good stuff by anybody's standards.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That Metapsychic Rebellion disappointed me. The long, careful, detailed buildup to the Rebellion had me expecting a grim, desperate, prolonged struggle. Instead, it hardly began before it was defeated. Anticlimactic!
Ad astra! Sean
Agreed.
Kaor, Paul!
I recall Stirling commenting that it looked as tho May could not bear to see her Galactic Milieu being badly damaged.
Anderson handled rebellions and civil wars far more convincingly in many of his stories. Such as "No Truce With Kings," THE REBEL WORLDS, or THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
Rogi watched the single battle of the Rebellion on TV.
Kaor, Paul!
I think I remember that--some kind of instantaneous FTL television, which is rather hard to think will be plausible.
Ad astra! Sean
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