Withdrawal

Let us assess the contents of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy. After The Earth Book of Stormgate, which had completed the history of the Polesotechnic League and almost completed the narrative of human-Ythrian interactions, we had read the Captain Flandry series preceded by its later-written Young Flandry prequel and two other Technic History instalments set in the same period. Now all that remains of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization are the six instalments collected as Flandry's Legacy. These two novels and four stories of different lengths present an initially gradual but increasingly accelerating withdrawal in both space and time.

In A Stone in Heaven, Flandry is still the central character but is now a Rear Admiral, making his own assignments. Previously, he had always been answerable to someone else.

In The Game of Empire, Flandry's daughter is the central character and Flandry, now a Fleet Admiral, makes three cameo appearances.

In the remaining four instalments, both Flandry and the Empire are long gone. Each instalment is set further away in space and further ahead in time. Other civilizations are growing, then have grown, and no one in any of these stories has had any contact with, or knowledge of, Earth. The withdrawal from the Captain Flandry series begins in A Stone in Heaven, then gathers pace but, even in the concluding episode, readers discern some aspects of "Flandry's legacy." We would like to know what had happened on Earth but there are many such unanswered questions.