Beginnings, Troubles And Endings

Robert Heinlein's Future History begins on the substantial base of sixteen near future short stories collected in Volumes I and II. Thereafter, two short stories, "Coventry" and "Misfit," fall between two novels, "If This Goes On -" and Methuselah's Children. For this reason, Volume III has always comprised Revolt In 2100, collecting the first novel and the two short stories. Volume IV is the second novel and the much shorter Volume V completes the Future History by collecting just two remaining interconnected novellas.

In its original book publication order, Poul Anderson's Technic History begins with a collection about van Rijn, a collection about Falkayn and two novels about both. Again, two short stories fall between the two novels. In the original order, these two short stories were collected with ten other instalments in the later The Earth Book Of Stormgate whereas, in the still later The Technic Civilization Saga, the entire Technic History is presented in chronological order of fictional events, requiring a total of seven omnibus volumes.

In the original order, the first collection, Trader To The Stars, partly by its quotations from Percy Shelley, conveys the sense of adventure in the early days of the Polesotechnic League whereas the second novel, Mirkheim, is clearly and explicitly about the beginning of the end of the League. However, the second story in Trader... foreshadows later conflicts in its prologue, an extract from the first van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit," which ends by informing readers that the League:

"...had its troubles."

-Poul Anderson, "Territory" IN Anderson, Trader To The Stars (New York, 1964), pp. 53-114 AT p. 54.