Thursday 25 July 2024

Future History Apex

A Heinleinian future history series is pyramidal in structure with later instalments building on the foundations laid down by earlier instalments and maybe an apex encapsulating everything that has gone before. In Heinlein's Future History, this apex is Volume IV, Methuselah's Children, which refers back to everything important. The concluding Volume V, Orphans Of The Sky, is a brief epilogue or appendix.

Poul Anderson's Mirkheim is the apex of the Polesotechnic League period of his Technic History and The Earth Book Of Stormgate is another apex. More on this later. I am being interrupted by domestic responsibilities.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And which story was the apex for the ones placed in the Imperial era?

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

The best candidate is THE GAME OF EMPIRE.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

From Sean M. Brooks:

Kaor, Paul!

A good choice, I was thinking of ENSIGN FLANDRY. Everything that led to THE GAME OF EMPIRE sprang from ENSIGN.

Ad astra! Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I've rethought it, you were right to say THE GAME OF EMPIRE is the apex of the stories set in the Imperial era. ENSIGN FLANDRY was the beginning of the process leading to GAME.

Ad astra! Sean