The Beginning And The End II

Both Explorations, a collection by Poul Anderson, and the same author's major future history series, the History of Technic Civilization, begin with "The Saturn Game" and end with "Starfog." The first of these two stories provides the cover illustration for Explorations.

There is no direct connection between the two stories. When they are read in isolation, or in Explorations, there is no internal evidence that they are the first and forty third installments of a single series.

However, all the installments of the Technic History are at least indirectly connected. In this case:

the Jerusalem Catholic Church is introduced in "The Saturn Game";

later in the History, the Dominic Flandry sub-series is followed by a novel, The Game Of Empire, about Flandry's daughter, in which he cameos;

The Game Of Empire ends with a Jerusalem Catholic priest addressing Flandry;

that novel is followed by four installments about the immediate and longer term aftermaths of the Fall of the Terran Empire, a regime whose existence had been defended and even prolonged by Flandry;

the last of these installments is "Starfog," featuring remote descendants of rebels exiled by Flandry.