Introductory Details

What a slow, steady build-up of rich background details in a future history! In Volume I of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis -

on p. 30: There is a Jerusalem Catholic Church, which will not be mentioned again until the last installment in Vol III.

p. 81: Captain Gray commands a ship of the Grand Survey;

p. 83: There are trade-route cultures on the planet Cynthia.

p. 86: Human colonists farm on Hermes.

p. 93: On Woden, intelligent beings are quadrupeds.

p. 100: Communication is established with Ythrians.

p. 109: There is a University of Nova Roma on Aeneas.

p. 115: Ythrians and human beings explore a planet provisionally named after Gray.

p. 138: Captain Torres is a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers; Nicholas van Rijn runs the Solar Spice & Liquors Company (SSL).

p. 177: James Ching has a friend called Adzel; the Brotherhood limits applications to the Academy.

p. 181: Adzel is from Woden.

p. 183: There are treetop highways on Cynthia; the inhabitants of Gorzun are four-armed.

p. 184: Inhabitants of Alfzar are blue; his Brotherhood badge identifies a spacehand.

p. 204: David Falkayn is from Hermes.

p. 276: Falkayn has become a factor for SSL.

p. 348: Lady Sandra Tamarin is from Hermes.

p. 523: SSL sells Suleimanite bluejack to Babur.

p. 542: The SSL factor on Suleiman is from Altai; a Cynthian spaceship regularly calls at Suleiman.

p. 557: Captain Bahadur Torrance is a Lodgemaster in the Brotherhood.

In subsequent volumes:

Gorzuni will enslave Terrestrials and work as mercenaries;
van Rijn will employ Falkayn, Adzel and a Cynthian as a trader team;
government legislation will give trade unions control of pension funds;
Lady Sandra will bear van Rijn's son and become Grand Duchess of Hermes;
Babur will invade Hermes;
Falkayn will lead joint human-Ythrian colonization of Gray, renamed Avalon;
the main city on Avalon will be called "Gray;"
Alfzar will be neutral between Terra and Merseia and a Covenant will be signed there;
Dominic Flandry will visit Altai;
Flandry will defeat a revolution centered on Aeneas;
a Wodenite will be ordained in the Jerusalem Catholic Church -

- and, of course, a great deal more than this will happen as well.

It was the very early references to Cynthia, Hermes, Woden and Aeneas that I found most impressive. The complexities of Technic civilization start to come into focus from the very beginning of the series.