Five Stories And A Novel

 

In the 1960's, it sufficed for me that a novel involved space travel. That put Asimov's Foundation Trilogy on a par with Anderson's Technic History. Now considerably more than that is necessary and Poul Anderson still provides it.

Decades ago, while visiting my parents in Nottingham, I bought paperback copies of The People Of The Wind and The Day Of Their Return. I knew that both novels were volumes of Anderson's Technic History and thought that both, not just one, of them were set outside of the Flandry period. Consequently, references to Dominic Flandry in the second of these volumes came as a surprise. Now, of course it is clear to anyone who knows the Technic History that the Young Flandry Trilogy comes between these two volumes. Thus:

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, concludes with The People Of The Wind;

Saga, Vol. IV, comprises Young Flandry;

Vol. V commences with The Day Of Their Return.

However, centuries separate The People Of The Wind from Ensign Flandry whereas only a few years separate the third Young Flandry novel, The Rebel Worlds, from its non-Flandry sequel, The Day Of Their Return.

The People Of The Wind opens by imparting some concentrated information about Ythrian choths so it makes sense first to check the five earlier Ythrian short stories collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate. The first of these stories, "Wings of Victory," introduces the Ythrians as a species but says nothing as yet about their social relationships except that, as carnivores, they must be territorial and, as fliers, they do not need cities. That is the base on which Anderson builds.