Inside That Environmental Unit

Mirkheim, V.

"Two beings waited... One was a Merseian..." (p. 95)

Any sf fan who read Mirkheim when it was first published would probably have been familiar with Merseians by then. Nevertheless, if anyone reads Mirkheim as the culmination of the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy before reading The People Of The Wind to be followed by The Earth Book Of Stormgate, then this is their first sight of a Merseian. The trader team's earlier visit to Merseia is described in "Day of Burning" which, like "Lodestar," about van Rijn's visit to Mirkheim, is presented in the Earth Book on a "now it can be told" basis. Of course, both "Day of Burning" and "Lodestar" precede Mirkheim in The Technic Civilization Saga where all the Technic History instalments are published for the first time in their chronological order. Nevertheless, it is sometimes important in the real world to remember the order in which information was made public. People cannot have responded to an important event if they had not been made aware of it yet. Avalonian readers of the Earth Book learn for the first time what Falkayn did on Merseia and how van Rijn came to Mirkheim.

This is like reading real history and authentic historical novels.