The Trouble Twisters In The Technic History

I feel another brief summary of the pre-Saga Technic History coming on so I will get that out of the way. Since War Of The Wing-Men (Ace Books, 1958) was, according to Poul Anderson, badly copy-edited and ludicrously titled, I do not count it as Volume I of the Technic History. As a matter of fact, my copy of War Of The Wing-Men was published by Sphere Books in 1976 but that was two years before the novel was republished with its correct title, The Man Who Counts, and its proper text both as a single volume and as part of the collection, The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

The succinctest summary of the pre-Saga Technic History that I can think of is this:

one collection of three stories about van Rijn;
one collection of three stories about Falkayn;
two novels about both;
two further collections needed to complete the pre-Flandry period;
the nine-volume Flandry period;
four post-Flandry stories.

That does not sound like much but only because it is so succinct.

As I showed in A Novel Or Not?, the Falkayn collection, The Trouble Twisters, is biographical about Falkayn in a way that the van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars, is not about van Rijn. The Trouble Twisters traces Falkayn's progress from apprentice through journeyman to Master Merchant and trade pioneer crew leader, with appropriate connecting references, whereas Trader To The Stars begins in van Rijn's old age when he has mostly stopped space traveling. We would like, but cannot have, a collection of at least three stories about van Rijn's early career. However, we are extremely fortunate to have as much as we do.

We also cannot read The Sky Book Of Stormgate, which is for Ythrians, but the History of Technic Civilization is immensely enhanced by the inclusion of The Earth Book Of Stormgate which records how Technic civilization, including the Polesotechnic League, influenced the colonization of Avalon and thus also affected the origin of the Stormgate Choth.

Addendum: For a correction to this post, see Correcting An Error.