a late stage of the Polesotechnic League;
three stages of the colonization of the planet Avalon;
three stages of the growth of the Terran Empire.
A character born at the end of the opening novel briefly addresses his son in the following short story (and a descendant features in the concluding novel) but there is no other overlap of characters between the six works which, according to Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, extend from 2426 until the 2800's.
Thus, this single volume could be published as a future history - a fiction covering events not just in the life of a single character or generation but in the lives of several generations. Future histories usually start in the near future (not 2426) before moving further uptime. However, this volume is only one of seven which in their entirety extend from c. 2055 to 7100, or thereabouts.
I think that the collection is perfect although a better title would have been League And Empire, to show that the action starts in the declining League and ends in the early Empire. I used to think that the opening novel, Mirkheim, would have been better placed in Volume III as part of the Polesotechnic League/Nicholas van Rijn/David Falkayn/trader team series, in which case Volume IV would have been more appropriately entitled Avalon And Empire. However, I now accept that the team, long disbanded, is temporarily reconvened to address the Mirkheim crisis so that this novel is a sequel more properly belonging in this following, transitional volume.
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