(i) A family visit to Leicester, recently postponed, should occur next week and might be extended.
(ii) Reading The Racketeer by John Grisham.
(iii) Practising some Latin.
Longer term, the Poul Anderson agenda is:
(a) Finish reading Mother Of Kings.
(b) Read The Last Viking, Volume III.
(c) Acquire For Love And Glory and, when published, Multiverse.
(d) Maybe hear about Multiverse from blog readers before I get a copy?
(e) Return to rereading Anderson's futuristic sf.
(f) Maybe track down his three detective novels.
The Anderson agenda recedes into an indefinite future. Which works will be republished? Will there be more contributions by other authors, like the stories in Multiverse? What has been done with Foundation and Dune is not a good model for continuing the Technic History.
6 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I hope you have a good time in Leicester, and that it's for happy, not sad reasons.
Leicester has been rather on my own mind lately. I have a friend who is a partisan of Richard III and she has been very interested over the recent discovery of what may very well be his remains (on the site of the church where Richard III was buried after the Battle of Bosworth).
I've read some of John Grisham's novels as well. I'm sure US law must seem very strange in some ways to a Briton like you. I've thought of reading Simon Tolkien's books as well. Their focus on UK law would probably interest me.
I've noticed you've not been commenting on THE LAST VIKING lately. Is that because it's very difficult to find copies of all three volumes of that novel? I got my copies when they were first published, so I don't NEED to look for me, but I was interested to notice how hard it is to find all three volumes of VIKING.
At least we know why MULTIVERSE has been delayed. The pub. are waiting for George RR Martin to turn in his story. But still frustrating!
I'm currently reading Anderson's mystery novel MURDER IN BLACK LETTER, pub. in 1960. What I've thought, among other things, if you want to see how Anderson handled writing a novel dealing with THEN contemporary things, then one of his mysteries is a good place to look.
Mysteries set in more or less our contemporary times have to focus on what THEN exists, rather than either the remote past or future, as in most of Anderson's SF and fantasy. And it was interesting to see how strange and different the American society depicted in MURDER IN BLACK LETTER is from THIS time we live in. The differences I've been noticing are both minor and major. Examples being the common use and acceptance of smoking and the non existence of personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, etc.
I've seen some fan fics set in Poul Anderson's Technic Civlization timeline, their quality was not good! But I would be interested in reading Greg Bear's FOUNDATION AND CHAOS. I would expect him to be at least competent.
Sean
It was indeed difficult to get THE LAST VIKING Vol III but Ketlan has got it for me via the Internet. I have yet to read it and have yet to finish MOTHER OF KINGS.
George Martin's story is not mentioned in the pre-published Table of Contents so I wonder where it fits in relation to PA's works?
Fiction writers have said that, if they are setting a novel just in the last few years, they have to check where computer and communications were at in that year: When did DVD's replace CD's? What could you not do on your cell phone in 2010 that you can do in 2013? etc.
3 thriller writers called "John": Buchan (conservative); le Carre (cynical); Grisham (change of nationality and of profession, ie, law instead of Intelligence). Reading through all 3 would give a massive dose of modern history as filtered through fiction.
I think the biggest social changes I have seen in my life time are attitudes to homosexuality and to smoking. Also, the monarchy is now much lower profile in Britain.
Hi, Paul!
I'm glad you managed to get a copy of Vol. 3 of THE LAST VIKING.
I managed to track down a statement by George Martin that the story he is contributing to MULTIVERSE will be a Nicholas van Rijn piece. Which makes me feel some trepidation! Will Martin be able to do justice to someone as unique as Old Nick? How will he handle both van Rijn's comic fractured Anglic and his very real and serious side? Reminds me of the anxiety I felt over Raymond Feist's Dominic Flandry's story.
And, yes, good fiction writers have to be careful about the minutia of every day life you listed as examples when writing books set in near/very near contemporary times.
I've not read any thing by John Buchan, but I think I read a little bit by John Le Carre. It was precisely that cynicism of his which prevented me from reading his books. Because I do believe some causes are better than others. Think of how Dominic Flandry had no illusions about the Terran Empire of his day but still preferred it over the theoretically "better" Merseian Roidhunate. Because Flandry considered the Empire, for all its faults, to be morally better than Merseia.
And when it came to more "contemporary" spy series, I preferred the pre SPECTRE James Bond books and the Blackford Oakes stories of William F. Buckley. Precisely because, while having no illusions about the faults of the UK or US, they were still better than the late, unlamented USSR.
And I believe not all social changes are for the better. I will NEVER give my internal assent, for example, to the abomination of "legal" abortion. And I thought smoking is still widely acceptable in the UK. And, if I may go by the enthusiasm given to the ceremonies celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the accesion of Elizabeth II, many many Britons are still devoted to the monarchy.
And I hope George Martin hurries up and finishes that story!
Sean
Smoking has been banned by law in all work places and in all indoor public places - pubs, hotels, restaurants, government offices, shops etc. Smokers have to go outside and not blow their smoke in the door. This makes for a real change of attitudes. Some of us were concerned when a guy seemed to be about to light up in our pub but he was just getting his cigarette and lighter out of his pocket before going outside.
The public response to the Golden and Diamond Jubilees was nowhere on the scale of that to the Silver Jubilee. However, Royal Weddings and pregnancies still get a lot of attention.
So it sounds like 2 Time Patrol stories, 2 Technic History stories, 2 Queen of Air and Darkness-related and 2 Three Hearts and Three Lions-related.
Hi, Paul!
I'm not a smoker, but I don't like the anti smoking fascism I've been seeing. Or what looks a lot like peresecution of smokers. There used to be thingsd like non smoking/smoking sections or rooms. But this is a small example compared to far worse social changes.
Yes, that is about right, what you said about MULTIVERSE. I hope George Martins hurries up!
Sean
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