Wednesday 9 July 2014

Multiverse: Operation Xibalba, A Metaphysical Question

Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois, Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds (Burton, MI, 2014).

I finished reading "Operation Xibalba" by Eric Flint over breakfast and it is an authentic addition to Poul Anderson's Operation... series, with an unexpected way of completing the mission. It doesn't matter that the rescued expedition to Hell is not brought back in one piece...

When discussing "...the Mesoamerican deities and spirits...," the narrator refers to:

"The underlying belief system that had created them..." (p. 168)

This implies that the denizens of the supernatural realms have been brought into existence by belief in them. This is the premise of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Mike Carey's Lucifer and related works but was it stated in Anderson's Operation... books? I can't remember but, if not, it is a valid addition which, of course, could generate unlimited sequels - and this new team deserves its own series.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I enjoyed several of the stories and non fiction pieces in MULTIVERSE. But, I'm uneasy at the thought of there being long lasting continuations of the series and characters created by Poul Anderson. Except for, say, one or two volumes in honor of PA. I don't think there should be long lasting continuations of any of the series and characters created by him, UNLESS they had been personally authorzed and supervised by Anderson (as in Larry Niven permitting continuations of his Man/Kzin wars series). Another example would be S.M. Stirling's DRAKAS, containing stories using the Drakas he created.

Fan fiction, of course, is another matter. That is tolerable as long as their authors don't try to sell or copyright these stories. So far, I've seen NO fan fic using series and characters Anderson created which are worth reading.

Sean