Fables And Legends

Mirkheim.

In the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, when Coya Conyon says:

"'...when I was a youngster... I'd hear about the latest adventure of the fabulous Muddlin' Through team...'" (I, p. 33)

- we remember reading "The Trouble Twisters" and Satan's World.

When Hermetian spaceship officers focus:

"...their attention mainly on the merchant, the living legend..." (XIX, p. 254)

- we remember reading "Hiding Place," "Territory" and again Satan's World. So the fables and the legends refer to just four previous instalments. The Earth Book of Stormgare adds:

for the trader team, "Day of Burning";

for van Rijn, "Margin of Profit" and The Man Who Counts -

- three more instalments. (Van Rijn was not in space in "The Master Key" or "Esau." The events of "Lodestar" were kept secret until much later.)

Poul Anderson achieves much with little.