After what I call the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy and its sequel:
Traders To The Stars (3 stories; van Rijn);
The Trouble Twisters (3 stories; Falkayn);
Satan's World (1 novel; both);
Mirkheim (1 novel; both);
The People Of The Wind (1 novel; Avalon) -
- the purpose of The Earth Book Of Stormgate was to collect most, though not all, of the remaining pre-Flandry works. In fact, the Earth Book collects 12 of the remaining 15 such works. These 12 installments, covering van Rijn, Falkayn, Avalon and other aspects of the pre-Flandry history, are introduced by the Avalonian Ythrian, Hloch of Stormgate Choth, who claims that these collected narratives present:
"...the tale, told afresh, of how Avalon came to settlement and thus our choth to being."
-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 2.
Thus, Anderson's purpose, to collect most pre-Flandry installments, is not Hloch's purpose, to describe the origins of a colony and a choth. Obviously, the Earth Book achieves Anderson's purpose but does it also achieve Hloch's purpose? Maybe blog readers could ponder that conundrum for a while?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What I thought was that Poul Anderson use the fictional framework of Hloch's editing and commentary as a means of HIM, the author, making introductory comments to those stories. Because it was more interesting than doing so speaking as "Poul Anderson."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That is correct but there is still the question of whether Anderson succeeds in making Hloch's rationale for inclusion of stories in the EARTH BOOK plausible. I think that he does - just.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I would say it does, if you think of the book as simply collecting the stories showing the interactions of humans with Yhtrians. Even tho it also includes tales showing no Ythrians.
Ad astra! Sean
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