Saturday 28 April 2018

Culmination And Transition

Poul Anderson's The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, culminates in The People Of The Wind, which could also be described as "Falkayn's Legacy" and which provides the background material for Hloch's Introductions to the twelve works that had been collected as The Earth Book Of Stormgate and that are now distributed through The Technic Civilization Saga, Vols I-III.

Saga, Vol IV, Young Flandry, set over a century later than The People Of The Wind, is the first of four volumes with Flandry - of the Terran Empire - as their title character. Thus, the transition from Vol III to Vol IV is a major turning point in the Technic History. This is where two futuristic series were fused into one future history series.

In The People Of The Wind, the human-Ythrian colony of Avalon, which had been founded by David Falkayn, successfully resists annexation by the Terran Empire.

"Wings of Victory" introduces the Ythrians;
"The Problem of Pain" introduces Ythrian religion and Avalon;
"The Three-Cornered Wheel" introduces David Falkayn;
six subsequent works feature Falkayn;
"Wingless" describes the colonization of the Hesperian Islands on Avalon;
"Rescue on Avalon" describes the colonization of the Coronan continent on Avalon;
"The Star Plunderer" is about the Founder of the Terran Empire;
"Sargasso of Lost Starships" describes the Terran annexation of the planet Ansa.

Thus, The People Of The Wind is a culmination of thirteen previous works.

See also Thoughts.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

While THEMATICALLY your comments make sense, about how the Polesotechn League era transitioned into that of the Terran Empire, it was not PLANNED that way. By a fortunate accident, as Anderson was writing THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, it occurred to him that Nicholas van Rijn could have lived centuries before Dominic Flandry's time. So, on an impulse, he mentioned "Polesotechnarch" van Rijn in PLAGUE. The rest, as they say, was history!

Sean