Friday 28 October 2016

Packaging The Technic History

Yet again I think that I have worked out how Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization should be packaged and published. This version is a refinement of several previous attempts. Three boxed sets:

LEAGUE AND EMPIRE
Rise Of The Polesotechnic League
Decline Of The Polesotechnic League
Rise Of The Terran Empire

FLANDRY AND EMPIRE
Young Flandry And The Terran Empire
Captain Flandry Of The Terran Empire
Admiral Flandry and The Children Of The Terran Empire or The Molitor Dynasty

AFTER THE EMPIRE
After The Terran Empire or The Post-Imperial Age
a volume containing the original versions of the revised stories plus essays and commentaries on the Technic History.

The titles of the proposed boxed sets are suggested because they are appropriate. They also invite comparison with Asimov's Foundation And Empire etc. What Asimov's series aspires to be, Anderson's is.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Exactly which stories would you put in the three volumes of the first "boxed set"?

The contents of YOUNG FLANDRY AND THE TERRAN EMPIRE are obvious: ENSIGN FLANDRY, A CIRCUS OF HELLS, and THE REBEL WORLDS. The contents of ADMIRAL FLANDRY AND THE MOLITOR DYNASTY are also obvious: A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, A STONE IN HEAVEN, and THE GAME OF EMPIRE. CAPTAIN FLANDRY AND THE TERRAN EMPIRE would include the intermediate Flandry stories and the non Flandy tales.

I agree with your suggestion about THE POST IMPERIAL AGE, including the original texts of the stories revised by Anderson after "A Tragedy of Errors," THE NIGHT FACE, and "Star Fog." And I like the idea of including articles and commentaries about the Technic Civilization stories.

In fact, whole volumes could be used for collecting commentaries and publishing letters to and from Poul Anderson.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Drat! I forgot to list "The Sharing of Flesh" before THE NIGHT FACE!

I'm disappointed at how so many people still cite only Asimov's Foundation books as an example of a "future history." And neglect any mention of Anderson's Technic Civilization stories.

Besides Anderson, Asimov, and Heinlein, other SF authors have written "future histories": the Co-Dominium series of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and S.M. Stirling, the DUNE books of Frank Herbert, and H. Beam Piper's "Space Viking" and other works also came to mind. And more could be listed!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I will reply with a post.
Paul.