An Ythrian Series

There could an "Ythrian series" by Poul Anderson, comprising one collection of five short stories and one novel. However, no such separate series exists because the Ythrian element is fully embedded in the History of Technic Civilization. The five short stories were collected, together with six non-Ythrian stories and one novel, in a single volume where each of the twelve works was newly introduced by the Ythrian historian, Hloch, created for this purpose, who then rounded off the collection with a concluding afterword.

Two short stories about events elsewhere in space fall between this collection, The Earth Book Of Stormgate, and the Ythrian novel, The People Of The Wind. A further three novels and one short story fall between that Ythrian novel and The Day Of Their Return - featuring the last appearance by an Ythrian in the Technic History. All these works are published in chronological order of fictitious events in Baen Books' Technic Civilization Saga, which preserves Hloch's editorial passages even though the afterword to the Earth Book has to fall in the middle of Volume 3, Rise Of The Terran Empire.

Thus, it would be easy to miss the Ythrian sub-series by contrast with the more evident League, Empire and Long Night sub-series of the lengthy and varied History. When the first Nicholas van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit," appears in the Earth Book, it has a double significance. We can read it simply as the opening installment of the van Rijn sub-sub-series of the Polesotechnic League sub-series of the Technic History series but we should also understand that Hloch of Stormgate Choth, addressing his fellow Ythrians, has chosen this narrative as the best introduction to the League merchant who became the mentor of the Founder of their Avalonian colony.

Appropriately, the Earth Book opens with two Ythrian stories and also closes with two. The intermediate stories that do not feature Ythrians, except for one where they are in the background, should be read with the understanding that these stories are being presented to Ythrians in order to help them to understand humanity. For example, they are shown how two very different Terrestrial religions have affected other rational species as well as how their own New Faith impacted on a Christian.

The specifically Ythrian stories outline their:

physiology;
religion, and exploration of Avalon;
colonization of Avalonian islands;
colonization of an Avalonian continent.