Back To The Multiverse

Regular blog readers will remember that I recently bought a copy of the Foundation Trilogy, Volume III, Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov, bypassing Volumes I and II. The purpose of the purchase was not to reread this book but just to quote and analyze certain passages because of their parallels with certain recently reread or remembered passages in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic and Technic Histories. There my renewed interest in Asimov ends, at least for the time being. This intellectual exercise was both interesting and entertaining, especially since I had completely forgotten some of the relevant details and also because it was necessary to reread the text very carefully in order to uncover exactly what it was that Asimov was or was not saying. There were some surprises. Poul Anderson does not tie himself in such philosophical knots and writes more convincing fictional history in any case.

Having, I think, concluded any renewed engagement with Asimov at least for now, my attention is left hovering between the two mentioned Andersonian future histories and, by implication, between several other future history series by Anderson and his contemporaries. Imagine their respective time chats displayed in parallel on a wall-sized sheet or screen. We notice comparisons and contrasts. World War III occurs in the Psychotechnic History but not in the Technic History. Seeing the timelines in parallel, we are bound to wonder about any interaction between them: not only spaceships and time machines but also inter-timeline machines? Rhysling from Heinlein's Future History and van Rijn from Anderson's Technic History do both make it into Anderson's inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. A much greater story remains to be told here.