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.
3 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
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