Anderson: the Old Phoenix;
Gaiman: the Inn of the Worlds' End.
Gaiman's Inn is not only between worlds but also at the end of every world. However, it is being continually created because worlds are continually ending and those who travel between the worlds encounter it occasionally whereas the Old Phoenix is a place to which a favoured few from different worlds are invited for an occasional overnight stay. There are differences as well as similarities. Valeria Matuchek deduced the existence of an inter-universal nexus and of somewhere like the Old Phoenix whereas regular guests just find themselves entering the inn unexpectedly.
In an Anderson collection along the lines of Gaiman's The Sandman: Worlds' End:
each story would be narrated by someone from a different historical period or from a different alternative history;
there would be framing passages set in the inn and also an entire episode in which the guests discussed multidimensionality and similar concepts.
Thus, potentially, a series of instalments not only from different series but also from different kinds of series. We can only speculate about the possibilities.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unless she said so in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST, I don't think Valeria "found" the Old Phoenix. It's more likely the inn appeared to her as it did to all its guests. The impression I got is that Mine Host Taverner chooses who can become his guests.
Ad astra! Sean
"'That's how I found the Old Phoenix.'"
-A MIDSUMMER ACCIDENT, Chapter xi, "The Taproom of the Old Phoenix," near the end.
Holger got there by accident.
Kaor, Paul!
Got it, re Valeria and Holger Danske. You made recall how Holger only found the Old Phoenix using a crude cookbook of magic.
Hmmm, was Mine Host Taverner surprised to see either of them?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Maybe but he obviously coped.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
He certainly did!
I also thought of Harry Turtledove's story, "The Man Who Came Late," in MULTIVERSE, where we get a glimpse of the Old Phoenix. There we see Holger Danske and Alianora meeting many years after getting separated in THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS. At first, I thought it was one of MULTIVERSE's better stories, but Stirling's criticisms of it as showing the characters being too reasonable and of the story being too much of a "downer" were very apt and to the point.
I thought Stirling's own contribution, "A Slip in Time," the single best story in MULTIVERSE, with Feist's contribution "The Candle" being the next best. I was also very interested in how Stirling treated the oft overlooked Austria-Hungary. And that also reminded me of Avram Davidson's stories set in the Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, which were inspired by the real-world Dual Monarchy. I very much recommend those Davidson stories.
Ad astra! Sean
I don't think Poul would have had Holger's quest end that way, no.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree. A pity Anderson never got around to showing us how Holger got back to his home universe and Alianora in a reasonable time.
We need a second, better MULTIVERSE!
Ad astra! Sean
Harry's characters -- especially the ones he focuses on as protagonists -- tend to be excessively reasonable if he doesn't watch it. He is himself.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Maybe that's one of the reasons I became, by and large, dissatisfied with Turtledove's stories, at least the longer ones. Too many characters being excessively reasonable. Real human beings, high and low, in or out of positions of power, are as likely to be motivated in their decisions by their passions and emotions as cold logic.
I do like Turtledove's Basil Argyros stories.
Ad astra! Sean
There's a general tendency among authors to make characters align with your general 'approach' to life. I watch that carefully myself, but still fall into the trap occasionally.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have noticed that tendency in writers as well, including the works of Anderson. E.g., his inclination to favor libertarianism--but he was never dogmatic about it. Because, as he told me in one of his letters, he knew the State was a necessity, given how flawed all human beings are. Anderson seems to have dismissed libertarianism in his later years.
Ad astra! Sean
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