Eternity

Tomorrow, I must collect Eternity by Greg Bear from Waterstones Bookshop, Lancaster, and attend a funeral at St John the Baptist Church in the village of Low Bentham (see attached image). Thus, Eternity and eternity.

How many sf books have "Eternity" in their titles?

Eternity by Greg Bear;
Sailing Bright Eternity by Gregory Benford;
Threshold Of Eternity by John Brunner;
Assignment In Eternity by Robert Heinlein;
The Palace Of Eternity by Bob Shaw;
Highway Of Eternity by Clifford Simak;
Empress Of Eternity by L.E. Modesitt Jr;
One Against Eternity by A.E. Van Vogt;
The Siege Of Eternity by Frederick Pohl;
On The Oceans Of Eternity by S.M. Stirling;
The Eternity Stone by Aden Foster Romine and Mary Cox Romine;
"The Eternity Engine" by Jack Williamson;
The End Of Eternity by Isaac Asimov;
no doubt others.

Asimov gives us dire time travel logic. Brunner gives us fairly incomprehensible time travel. Some titles I have found by googling. I will be interested to learn how Bear's Eternity follows from his Eon.

Prequels And Sequels

Greg Bear, Eon (London, 2002).

Now I see how there is scope for a prequel to Eon: not earlier events in the cosmic corridor but the history of Earth from 1985 until the launch of the Thistledown. Is this when Legacy is set? I will find out but not immediately. I deduce that we cannot know any of the subsequent history of that Earth because, after their departure, the occupants of the Thistledown interact with other rational species, then with the earlier Earth of a different timeline.

How many of the advances in mental technology are made after the departure? Maybe the answer to this question is there in the text. Synopsizing and commenting while blogging makes me realize how many details of plot and background are quickly forgotten after a single cursory reading of a novel. I would like to see one novel about the mental tech and another about exploring superspace.

Original novel, prequel and sequel is a good structure for a trilogy. Rider Haggard did this well with She. That novel ended with its title character's death but Allan Quartermain read it and sent Haggard his account of his earlier meeting with She: She And Allan. Then there was the Return (from death). Thus, there was a reason why the prequel was published second.

What Next For The Blog?

Greg Bear, Eon (London, 2002).

I have read Eon to its conclusion and it will take a week or two for the sequel Eternity to arrive. After, or rather before, that there are, I gather, two prequels, Legacy and "The Way Of All Ghosts."

Meanwhile, I have two of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano novels to read, although those will not be discussed on this blog. (Poul Anderson gives us Trygve Yamamura and, in very restrained amounts, Sherlock Holmes.) At the beginning of next month, with the start of the new academic year, I will have to get back into reading some Latin texts, which may be mentioned here if appropriate. The Roman Empire is one of Poul Anderson's major periods: "Delenda Est," Roma Mater etc.

I might reread and comment on further aspects of Eon and am sure that there is more to be found in the Time Patrol - although maybe not by me in the immediate future. So maybe less on the blog for the rest of this month.