In Praise Of The Earth Book

The first part of Poul Anderson's Technic History, corresponding to Volumes I-III of The Technic Civilization Saga, comprises twenty four instalments. The Earth Book Of Stomgate is an amazing enhancement of this part of the History. First, it collects half of these twenty four instalments. It begins with the second instalment and ends with the twenty third. Secondly, however, its twelve introductions and brief conclusion are fictitiously written shortly after the events of the twenty fourth instalment. Thus, the Earth Book almost spans the entire period of this first part of the History.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, we first read the first instalment of the Technic History, then secondly we read the first story collected in the Earth Book. At last everything is together in chronological order. As I wrote in a previous post, the Earth Book completes the story of the Polesotechnic League and almost completes the story of human-Ythrian interactions. It does all that and there is still more to come.