(i) Captain Nadi of Supermetals, a Wodenite, appears for the first time in "Lodestar" and reappears in Mirkheim but this does not put him in the quite the same category as van Rijn etc - continuing characters whose stories Anderson thought that he had completed in "Lodestar" but instead, fortunately, went on to complete at greater length in Mirkheim. Despite her comparative importance, Coya Conyon/Falkayn is in the same category as Nadi, not as van Rijn, David Falkayn, Adzel or Chee Lan who were already established series characters.
(ii) In particular, The Man Who Counts, "Esau" and "Lodestar" feed directly into Mirkheim.
(iii) Installments of a future history can be separated by anything from minutes to millennia. Eric Tamarin, conceived either during or immediately after the events of The Man Who Counts, is a young adult in Mirkheim. In The Man Who Counts, Sandra Tamarin, Nicholas van Rijn and Eric Wace had survived together in the hostile environment of Diomedes. We realize that Eric Tamarin's father is van Rijn although he is named after Wace.
(iv) In the original reading order, we read Mirkheim before any of its three direct prequels listed in (ii). When The Earth Book Of Stormgate was divided into three volumes, it was possible to read "Esau," then The Man Who Counts, before what I call the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, in which Mirkheim is Volume IV. In Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis, the entire Technic History is read in its chronological order.
(v) Mirkheim, II, p. 56, answers my question about Duke Robert. He was the Duke of Hermes before Sandra was the Duchess. This is a particularly coherent future history series.
(vi) Standing on her bedroom balcony, Grand Duchess Sandra looks down from the top of Pilgrim Hill, across the city of Starfall to Daybreak Bay and the Auroral Ocean. Through the transparent western wall of her breakfast room, she looks down the other side of the hill to the last few city buildings, green farmlands and the snowpeaks of Cloudhelm above the horizon.
(vii) The breakfast room is fragrant with cooking from the kitchen and a live waiter brings laden trays to Sandra and Eric. We vicariously enjoy wealth as when reading about van Rijn.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What I thought, as regards point "vii," was how some might think it antiquated to still have a LIVE domestic staff when robotics in an advanced, high tech could have handled all such services. I would reply that it was probably considered high status to have human servants. Also, I think it is better for the heads of states to have as many PEOPLE around them as possible. We should not want our kings, presidents, prime ministers, etc., to be isolated from actual contacts with humans.
Sean
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