Thursday 1 November 2012

Series Omnibus Titles?

I can never get this right but this is my latest attempt to suggest appropriate titles for omnibus collections of Poul Anderson's "History of Technic Civilisation" future history series. I agree with Baen about collecting the entire series in seven volumes although I would re-arrange the contents of most of the volumes.

My idea is to suggest titles that convey not only the connections between the volumes but also the progression of their contents. My current proposals are:

The Polesotechnic League
League Traders
League And Empire
Young Flandry
Flandry And Empire
Children Of Empire
After The Empire

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I fear that the editor of any COLLECTED COMPLETE WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON will never be able to arrange the contents of the volumes to anyone's complete satisfaction. The sheer range, variety, and scope of Anderson's writings makes it inevitable that critics and readers will carp and object over how the contents of many volumes were selected. But, I certainly hope somebody does the job!

Instead of AFTER THE EMPIRE for the works set in the centuries after the Empire fell, might I suggest THE POST IMPERIAL ERA? Or, THE LONG NIGHT AND OTHER STORIES?

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sure. THE LONG NIGHT has a lot going for it but what I was trying to do here was to suggest titles that clearly form a sequence showing both connections and progression between the volumes. Thus, CHILDREN OF EMPIRE clearly comes after other EMPIRE volumes and AFTER THE EMPIRE comes after that.

At any rate, this series is far better than either FOUNDATION or DUNE.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

In that case, my suggested THE POST IMPERIAL ERA would seem to fit what you were trying to suggest. That is, showing connections and progression between the volumes. THE POST IMPERIAL ERA seems less clunky to my eye/ear than AFTER THE EMPIRE.

I agree that Anderson's Technic Civilization series is superior to Asimov's FOUNDATION or Herbert's DUNE series. The books after DUNE shows a sad falling off in quality.

Sean