In Ensign Flandry by Poul
Anderson, the Terran Empire is over four hundred years old. (1) According to
Sandra Miesel's "Chronology of Technic Civilisation," the Empire was founded
about 2700 and Ensign Flandry is set in 3019, only about three hundred
and nineteen years later. (2) However, Anderson's texts warrant no chronological
precision. When the Chronology was being compiled, an editorial decision decreed
that Dominic Flandry was born in 3000. Since Ensign Flandry does clearly
state that its title character is nineteen, the date of 3019 for the novel
automatically followed. (3)
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
and Earthman, Come Home by James Blish are set in remote futures with no
dates given. When, later, precise dates were specified, the effect was to
shorten the histories implied by the earlier narratives. The Time Chart of Larry
Niven's Known Space future history states that the dates as given in one story
must be seen as erroneous. Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children and
Time Enough For Love disagree about Lazarus Long's age. However, I do not
accept Time Enough For Love as a valid addition to Heinlein's Future
History.
Some generalisations emerge from these
observations:
future histories usually are not pre-planned;
when a work has been published, its author becomes another reader with a fallible memory;
authors imagine longer periods when writing narratives than when compiling chronologies.
when a work has been published, its author becomes another reader with a fallible memory;
authors imagine longer periods when writing narratives than when compiling chronologies.
(1) Anderson, Poul, Ensign Flandry,
London, 1976, p. 104.
(2) Miesel, Sandra, "Chronology of Technic Civilisation" IN Anderson, Poul, The Rise of the Terran Empire, Riverdale, NY, 2009, pp. 477-478.
(3) Ensign Flandry, p. 32.
(2) Miesel, Sandra, "Chronology of Technic Civilisation" IN Anderson, Poul, The Rise of the Terran Empire, Riverdale, NY, 2009, pp. 477-478.
(3) Ensign Flandry, p. 32.
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