Consistency
In the Author's Note of "Steel Beach", Varley states:
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... 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... 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.
While there are small details throughout the series which do not match up, this is especially true of "Steel Beach" and its sequel. Any plot/character descriptions in this article should be read with this in mind.
Read more about this topic: Eight Worlds
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