2001

In twentieth century sf, the years 2000 and 2001 represented the future. Volume I of Robert Heinlein's Future History covered the period from the author's present to the end of the century. The stories in Volume II are all set around 2000. They are overlapping stories like some in Poul Anderson's Technic History.

In his Introduction to Volume I, The Man Who Sold The Moon, John W. Campbell describes Heinlein's stories as a window or a TV set showing the future but adds that we lack the key to the door into the future. However, we are walking through that door at every moment. We now look back at the periods covered by the Future History, Volumes I and II, and Poul Anderson's ultimate sf novel, Genesis, was, appropriately, published in 2000, at the very end of the twentieth century. Its first mass market edition, which I have, was published in 2001 at the very beginning of the twenty-first century. We have come a long way from Heinlein's opening story and, so far, are still going. From 2024, we salute John W. Campbell, Robert Heinlein and Poul Anderson.