Steel Beach (79 page)

This story appears to be part of a future history of mine, often called the Eight Worlds. It does share background, characters, and technology with earlier stories of mine, which is part of the future history tradition. What it doesn’t share is a chronology. The reason for this is simple: the thought of going back, rereading all those old stories, and putting them in coherent order filled me with ennui. It got so bad I might as well give up on this story.

Then I thought, what the heck?

Consider this a disclaimer, then.
Steel Beach
is
not
really part of the Eight Worlds future history. Or the Eight Worlds is not really a future history, since that implies an orderly progression of events. Take your pick. But please
don’t
write and tell me that the null-suits had to have been around much earlier in the series, because you said so in such-and-such a story. There are probably a lot of stories like that in
Steel Beech
. So what?

Somebody once said consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds (I think it was the editor of the
National Enquirer
). It’s a sentiment I’m sure Hildy would endorse.

—John Varley
December 1, 1991