"'I'm fifty years old. I was born during World War Three and grew up with the famines and the mass insanities that followed.'" (II, p. 142)
The Years of Hunger and the Years of Madness yet again although here referred to slightly differently. In the Chronology of the Future, WWIII begins in 1958 and "The Sensitive Man" is set in 2009. As with Robert Heinlein's Future History, a large section of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History has become past. Already two generations have elapsed since the opening story, "Marius," and this fifty year old man has lived through as much technological progress and social change as our parents and then we ourselves did in the earlier twentieth century. The Psychotechnic History is not on a par with Anderson's later Technic History but it is nevertheless a substantial future history series and this is established in these few opening instalments. Meanwhile the action-adventure stuff continues. Our viewpoint character, the sensitive man, is captured by his enemies. Read on.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Fictional textbooks a la the works of Olaf Stapledon might be more the kind of SF you prefer, but it's the action/adventure and the problem solving aspects which appeals most to many, many readers. As it is, frankly, to me as well. What Anderson manages to do is to provide both detailed "historical" backgrounds and plenty of action/adventure in his stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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