Life And Time

Because fiction reflects life, novels and fictional series often show the passage of time in the lives of their characters. One short story by Poul Anderson even begins:

"Once upon a time..."

-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, Trader To The Stars (New York, 1966), pp. 115-159 AT p. 116.

The unnamed first person narrator refers not to a fairytale past but to his own earlier life which, he adds:

"...was long ago..." (ibid.)

Since then, his friend of that time, Harry Stenvik, has accepted domesticity, built a house above a fjord and:

"...raised mastiffs and sons." (p. 117)

Stenvik's oldest son, Per, has recently become a Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League. Thus, a generation has passed since that "Once upon a time..."

Years have also elapsed for Per's ensign:

"'Manuel Felipe Gomez y Palomares of Nuevo Mexico...'" (p. 118)

- who says:

"'I thought of home and of one Dolores whom I had known, a long time ago.'" (p. 143)

Every adult, even a younger man in a junior post, has a personal past. Manuel had:

"'...traveled in space as a mercenary with Roger's Rovers, becoming sergeant before I left them for [van Rijn's] service.'" (p. 142)

None of this is any previous instalments but it is as solid as the fictional biographies of the several continuing characters. A few sentences or a single paragraph can add immense substance to a future history series. For example, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" ends when its first person narrator, James Ching, is offered a Polesotechnic League apprenticeship. However, additional material in The Earth Book Of Stormgate discloses that Ching kept a journal throughout his spacefaring career and that he settled down in Catawrayannis. "Esau" ends when Emil Dalmady enters entrepreneurship training sponsored by Nicholas van Rijn. However, additional material in the Earth Book discloses that Dalmady's later career was successful, that some of his children went to Avalon with Falkayn and that one of them, Judith wrote, in her old age, about Falkayn's grandson in his youth! - an unexpected behind the scenes link between Dalmady's story, "Esau," and Nat Falkayn's story, "Wingless."

Despite its "Once upon a time..." opening, "The Master Key" ends not with "And they all lived happily ever after..." but with the characters preparing to return to their dangerous careers and with van Rijn pouring scorn on the unadventurous bulk of mankind - whose lives and work maintain Technic civilization. (That last clause is my editorial comment.)