Saturday, 10 April 2021

Captain Flandry Reading Order

Of the eight installments in the Captain Flandry (as opposed to the Young Flandry or Admiral Flandry) series:

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows refers back to "The Warriors from Nowhere";

"The Plague of Masters" is a direct sequel to "A Message in Secret";

"Hunters of the Sky Cave" refers back to "The Game of Glory" which refers back to "Honorable Enemies" which refers back to "Tiger By The Tail." 

"Hunters..." also makes clear that Flandry has recently returned from the assignment described in "The Game..."

It is definite that "Tiger By The Tail" comes first, that A Knight... comes last and that Flandry is Sir Dominic in all but "Tiger..." and "Honorable Enemies." Since he employs Chives and owns the Hooligan only in "Hunters...," "The Warriors..." and A Knight..., it follows that the chronological order of fictional events is:

"Tiger..."
"Honorable Enemies"
"A Message..."
"The Plague..."
"The Game..."
"Hunters..."
"The Warriors..."
A Knight...
 
- which corresponds to three volumes:
 
one collection of four stories;
one collection of three stories;
one novel.
 
Any future edition of Baen Books' omnibus seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga needs to be slightly re-edited. It is also inappropriate that Volume V, entitled Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire, begins with a non-Flandry story followed by a non-Flandry novel.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Baen Books probably decided, for reasons of commercial practicality, that it was better to include "Outpost of Empire" and THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN with some of those Captain Flandry stories. A COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS should have "Outpost" and DAY comprising a separate volume.

Ad astra! Sean