Wednesday 5 June 2019

The Books Of Avalon

Here would be yet another way to republish the early parts of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization:

the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy;

the Books of Avalon, comprising The People Of The Wind and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, the latter in three volumes;

the Young Flandry Trilogy and its sequel, The Day Of Their Return.

This arrangement is aesthetically satisfying because it comprises three groups of four volumes. On the other hand, it does leave out a few stories that really do need to be included somehow. But I think that it is important to remember that earlier order of book publication where Nicholas van Rijn came first and the rest of the story was recounted later in the Earth Book.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And where would you place "Outpost of Empire"? That story takes place before THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
I would put it in the same volume as THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Assuming a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON, would you collect "Outpost of Empire" with THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN in a separate volume after the book containing the three Young Flandry novels?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Yes, unless we are talking about omnibus volumes, in which case YOUNG FLANDRY AND THE TERRAN EMPIRE should contain the Young Flandry Trilogy, "Outpost of Empire" and THE DAY...
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I like that idea, except for a caveat I have: to collect four novels and one long story in a single volume like that might make it too unwieldy to be conveniently handled. One volume collecting the Young Flandry novels and another containing "Outpose" and TDOTR seems more practical.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
The latter to be called OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE. But then that would be much shorter than the other Technic History omnibi.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I like that title: OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE. But I agree it's a problem, trying to determine how many stories should be collected in any particular volume of a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON.

Sean