(ii) The Time Patrol is both historical science fiction and alternative history.
(iii) The King Of Ys Tetralogy (with Karen Anderson) is historical fantasy.
(iv) The Last Viking Trilogy is historical fiction.
(The first three are Poul Anderson's main three.)
Four series yet five fictional engagements with history.
(i) Future history is not real history but is fictional history and sometimes reproduces past historical processes.
(ii) This historical science fiction is about time travel to fully realized historical periods and some chapters in "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" and "Star of the Sea" are pure historical fiction.
The time travellers discuss and sometimes experience alternative histories in divergent timelines.
(iii) The King Of Ys is fantasy because its premises are that the gods of Ys were real and that miracles happen but most of the text is straight historical fiction about the decline of the Western Roman Empire.
(iv) The Last Viking is a fictional biography of Harald Hardrada. When his ships seek Jotunheim, they find only icebergs.
Poul Anderson addresses history.
Addendum: See combox and here.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I know not all readers care for them, but I would include Anderson and Dickson's Hoka stories in such a list. With ten short stories and one novel they are a series. Also, "The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch" carefully explains the alternate historical premise of the Hoka stories: the rise of the British Commonwealth to unifying Earth, massively assisted by the accession of the US to the Commonwealth, which became the United Commonwealths of Earth--which in turn expanded to become the Inter-Being League.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I wanted to give not a complete list of series but a short list covering different fictional engagements with history:
future history
historical sf
alternative history
historical fantasy
historical fiction
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Understood. I place so much stress on the Hoka stories because I think many readers may be inclined to dismiss them as too trite to take seriously. A view I disagree with.
Ad astra! Sean
Yes, they're actually both humorous and serious.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! Science fiction doesn't have to be always grimly solemn and ponderous.
And I love "The Make-Shift Rocket"! I still remember how much I laughed when I first read it.
Besides Gordon Dickson, L. Sprague de Camp specialized in writing humorous SF, such as THE HOSTAGE OF ZIR.
Ad astra! Sean
I was so annoyed by the unsatisfactory way the second edition of Clute's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION handled the question of human/alien sex that I quoted from THE HOSTAGE OF ZIR in Appendix II of my "Futuristic Sex" article to show how sensibly this example of humorous SF handled that issue.
Ad astra! Sean
See Addendum to post.
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