Saturday 7 December 2019

The Origins Of Stormgate Choth

This The Earth Book Of Stormgate back cover blurb tells us that this volume contains "The first six adventures..." From this and other evidence, I deduce that the three-volume edition of the Earth Book comprises -

Vol 1: the first six stories;
Vol 2: the single novel, The Man Who Counts;
Vol 3: the remaining five stories.

Does the Earth Book succeed in describing the origins of Avalon and Stormgate? See the previous post.

The first two and the last two of the twelve stories are directly relevant, describing as they do:

the discovery of Ythri by human beings;
the joint Ythrian-human exploration of Avalon;
the joint human-Ythrian colonization of the Hesperian islands on Avalon;
the joint human-Ythrian colonization of the Coronan continent on Avalon.

However, in order to understand how and why their ancestors traveled from Ythri to Avalon, the Avalonians also need to understand:

Technic civilization in general and the Polesotechnic League in particular;
David Falkayn, who led the colonization of Avalon;
Falkayn's mentor, Nicholas van Rijn.

Does Hloch succeed in conveying these understandings? Something else to ponder.

The main historical events for Ythrians on the interstellar stage are:

the "Discovery" of Ythri by the human beings of the Grand Survey;
the Ythrians' own move into space;
their colonization of other planets, including Avalon;
the establishment of the Domain of Ythri at the same time as the Terran Empire after the collapse of the Solar Commonwealth;
the war between Domain and Empire.

After the Terran War, the Earth Book is written.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I've thought of THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE as being COMPILED by Hloch, with notes and commentary by him. Probably including explanatory annotations about human ides and institutions that would be irrelevant to humans.

Ad astra! Sean