Tuesday 7 November 2017

Change In Two Timelines

Rereading Poul Anderson's "Lodestar," I find the passage where Nicholas van Rijn's granddaughter, Coya Conyon, reflects on changes between her grandfather's generation, her father's and her own. There are similar reflections on generational differences in Anderson's Time Patrol series. However, I find that I have already posted about these issues here.

The Time Patrol series addresses real history over many millennia whereas the Technic History series presents a shorter fictional history in greater detail:

Coya is introduced in "Lodestar";
her and David's son, Nicholas Falkayn, is born near the end of Mirkheim;
that Nicholas' son, Nat, stars in "Wingless";
a direct descendant, Tabitha Falkayn, appears in The People Of The Wind -

- and the History continues although, unfortunately, we lose track of the Falkayns and of events on Avalon.

In The People Of The Wind, there is a generational disagreement between Daniel Holm and his son Christopher who joins an Ythrian choth, becoming Arinnian of Stormgate, and marries Tabitha Falkayn, who is Hrill of Highsky Choth. We have come a long way from Nicholas van Rijn: authentic fictional history.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I remember that dispute between Daniel and Christopher Holm. The former was not happy about his son joining a Ythrian choth because it looked so much like rejecting their HUMAN heritage. And Tabitha Falkayn was more BALANCED about valuing what was good in the cultures of both races than was "Arinnian."

It's not surprising we lose sight of the Falkayns of Avalon. The main line of the history of Technic Civilization lay with the Empire and its successors, after all.

Sean