There is just one Polesotechnic League series, comprising sixteen of the forty-three instalments of Poul Anderson's Technic History. However, I refer to the eight instalments that originally filled four volumes, two collections and two novels, and the eight that form only a part of
The Earth Book of Stormgate. The first eight instalments culminate in
Mirkheim which is chronologically the last PL instalment. The second eight culminate in "Lodestar," the prequel to
Mirkheim. Clearly the works are not presented in chronological order. The fictional
Earth Book editor, Hloch, presents his material on a "Now it can be told" basis: now it can be told what Falkayn did on Merseia; now it can be told how van Rijn came to Mirkheim; now it can be told how human beings experienced the early years on Avalon. (Hloch's audience is Ythrian.)
The 1st 8 PL Instalments
3 van Rijn
2 Falkayn
1 trader team (Falkayn, Adzel, Chee Lan) + van Rijn cameo
2 van Rijn and trader team
The 2nd 8
3 van Rijn
1 Adzel
1 trader team
1 van Rijn and trader team + Ythrians
2 others
It will be seen that:
the PL series is comprehensive and diverse;
van Rijn predominates.
In fact, van Rijn appears in ten of the instalments and is mentioned in two more. He also appears in one Old Phoenix short story.
(Addendum: I added "+ Ythrians" above to try to convey in slightly more detail how complicated and inter-connected the Technic History is.)
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I think we both would have liked to know whom Old Nick met and talked with during his visit to the Old Phoenix. And Dominic Flandry too would have been a worthy guest of the Taverners!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
When we see van Rijn in the Old Phoenix, he is with Erik the Red and Sancho Panza.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Aha! The discoverer of Vinland. And there was a timeline with a real Don Quixote and Sancho Panza!
Ad astra! Sean
Eric was the founder of the Greenland Norse colony. It was his son Leif who explored the lands to the west & south including what he called Vinland.
Vinland has long seemed to me an interesting 'what if' of history. The stories of that indicate (IIRC) that the Norse were way to quick to violence, & if they had been less so & able to start a trading relationship with the 'Skraelings', I could well imagine a Norse-native hybrid culture with both agriculture & iron-working spreading up the St. Lawrence & south along the American east coast.
Rather than the Amerindians getting all the European diseases at once, the more primitive ocean going technology of the Norse than Columbus had would mean those diseases would come one every few decades for the next few centuries, so the Amerindian populations would have time to recover in between epidemics.
Between these two factors the Amerindians would be much better off than in our time line. The Greenland Norse would also be much better off with reliable supplies of wood for their ships & a much better regions for growing the crops they had.
Kaor, Jim!
Thanks for these interesting comments. I sit corrected, Leif, not his father Eric, discovered Vinland.
I too have wondered what might have happened if the European discovery of the Americas had occurred around AD 1000, rather than 1492. The lower technological level of Europe at that time might have enabled some of the Indian tribes and nations to more quickly adapt to and adopt European innovations. There might have been Indian and hybrid Indian/European kingdoms and confederations capable of dealing with European nations on equal terms by 1492. Including Indian princesses marrying European monarchs (and vice versa).
Or there might not have been. I am not so confident the Indians could have escaped the devastating effects of virgin field epidemics after 15 or 17 thousand years of isolation from the rest of the human race. Even if separated and spread out over several decades (very unlikely), successive epidemics of the common cold, measles, smallpox, the Black Death, etc., would have been as devastating to the Indians of 1200 as they were after 1492.
Ad astra! Sean
A job for the Time Patrol.
Kaor, Paul!
And we see Anderson touching on such themes in his Time Patrol story, "The Only Game In Town," in which the Patrol aborted a Mongol/Chinese discovery of the Americas.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that Iceland was isolated enough that it had virgin-field epidemics now and then.
Even Norway was vulnerable, though to a lesser degree.
For the Americas to join the Eurasian disease environment, they had to be in swift, regular contact with the Old World.
Eg., it apparently took 20 years after 1492 for smallpox to jump the Atlantic -- and smallpox is unusually persistent, because the virus develops a "sheath" and can remain dormant for over a year if kept in a dark place (inside the folds of a blanket, for instance.)
Also the Amerindians were genetically vulnerable because of their genetic uniformity, itself the product of (relatively) recent origin from very small founding groups.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That makes sense to me, there was no realistic likelihood of the Indians escaping virgin field epidemics from either China or Europe. Just a bit surprised about Iceland's vulnerability to epidemics.
Oddly, when I read up a bit about the Black Death, I found out Poland, of all places, escaped the worse of the bubonic plague.
Ad astra! Sean
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