Series Structures

Some series have two "first" installments, the first written or earliest published and a prequel. In CS Lewis' The Chronicles Of Narnia, the second written volume, Prince Caspian, subtitled "The Return to Narnia," became the fourth of seven when two prequels had been added.

The earliest published appearances of Poul Anderson's four main series characters were:

Dominic Flandry in "Tiger by the Tail" (1951);
Manse Everard in "Time Patrol" (1955);
Nicholas van Rijn in "Margin of Profit" (1956);
David Falkayn in "The Three-Cornered Wheel" (1963).

Of these four characters, Flandry is alone in having prequels:

Ensign Flandry (1966);
A Circus Of Hells (1970);
The Rebel Worlds (1969).

Complicating the series further, this "Young Flandry" Trilogy has two non-Flandry sequels:

"Outpost of Empire" (1967);
The Day Of Their Return (1973).