Saturday, 20 July 2024

Local And Future History

 

OK. Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization has an intricate structure which is not only fascinating but also somehow dynamic at least when the reader's attention shifts back and forth between the two equally valid reading orders for the first main section of the history. Either we begin and end this section with the earlier published collections, Trader To The Stars and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, or instead we read through the first twenty four instalments in their fictional chronological order as presented in Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III (of VII).

When I posted earlier today, I had just returned from the Heysham Viking Festival which has a ship and people in costume practising crafts in tents. Many wear Thor's hammer as a medallion. St. Peter's Church in Heysham is over a thousand years old and there is also a ruined St. Patrick's Chapel overlooking Morecambe Bay. We live and breathe history and project future history.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Most old coots like me first read any of the Technic stories in a far more jumbled up way!

And some individual Scandinavians, vikings, mercenaries, or traders, would convert to Christianity, esp. after AD 800, as the Viking wars and raids started in earnest. Meaning they would wear the Cross.

Ad astra! Sean