The immortal Lazarus Long leads his people to freedom in an interstellar spaceship at the beginning of an interstellar period but very near the end of Robert Heinlein's five-volume Future History. The mortal David Falkayn leads some people to freedom on Avalon near the end of the first interstellar period of Technic civilization. That civilization will have a second long interstellar period and will then be followed by several post-"Technic," although not post-technological, periods. Thus, there are both similarities and differences between Heinlein's and Poul Anderson's future histories. Anderson does write about immortals but not in his Technic History.
Lazarus Long becomes a time traveller in a, to my mind, inauthentic sequel. Again, Anderson addresses time travel extensively in several works although not in his Technic History. I think of Heinlein as a starting point and Anderson as a culmination.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Falling behind. Been having trouble uploading comments.
We do see mention of how, after the Fall of the Empire, some planets reverted to savagery, such as Lokon. Others got knocked back down to an approximately 20th level of technology. And on still others the human colonies, dependent on high tech to survive, died out. I hope that last was not the fate of Unan Besar!
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, I think Heinlein made a mistake when he tried to unify all his fictional universes.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That was one mistake. Another was RAH becoming a bore about sex and incest.
Ad astra! Sean
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