by the end of Poul Anderson's Trader To The Stars, we have read three stories about Nicholas van Rijn but without as yet any sense of future history;
by the end of Anderson's The Trouble Twisters, we have seen David Falkayn's career advance from apprentice through journeyman/factor to Master Merchant/trade pioneer crew leader, with a cameo appearance by van Rijn;
after two novels about both characters, we realize that we are now seeing the beginning of the end of the Polesotechnic League;
after reading the companion volumes, The People Of The Wind and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, we have covered not only the entire history of the League but also the beginning of a new era with the Terran Empire, the Domain of Ythri and the growing Merseian Roidhunate;
in "Starfog," set several millennia later, the League, the Empire and even the Anglic language are ancient history.
If, as I suggest:
Three Hearts And Three Lions
Operation Otherworld
A Midsummer Tempest
- were to be packaged as a trilogy, then a new reader would be puzzled but eventually rewarded. On p. 93 of Volume III, a woman addresses her companion as "Holger" (from Volume I) and, on p. 94, he addresses her as "Valeria" (from Volume II). Thus, everything comes together. We have seen not only Holger in solitary action but also Valeria's story from her parents' first meeting through their engagement, marriage and honeymoon, then her birth, infancy and teenage years: varied and substantial narratives.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with your comments about the Technic Civilization series, with some caveats. Mostly I would point out we have no stories set in the era of the early Polesotechnic League down to "Margin of Profit" (say, from about AD 2200 to the birth of Nicholas van Rijn). And there are similar gaps or lacunae in the history of the Empire about which we don't really know much.
And I would like to have seen more about Valeria's brother Ben and their younger sister sister Chryssa.
Ad astra! Sean
Packaging those three as a trilogy is a good idea, now that you mention it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Preferably as part of a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON. And that was done for the works of Jack Vance and Robert Heinlein.
Ad astra! Sean
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