Where To Begin Reading A Future History Series II

Robert Heinlein's Future History

Whether we start with the first collection, The Man Who Sold The Moon, or with the omnibus collection, The Past Through Tomorrow, the first story that we read is "Lifeline," which is chronologically the earliest installment of the Future History.

Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History

Whether we start with the first collection, The Psychotechnic League, or with the later, inaccurately entitled, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 1, the first story that we read is "Marius," which is chronologically the earliest installment of the Psychotechnic History.

Poul Anderson's Technic History

It's complicated. We might start with:

the first collection, Trader To The Stars;

the omnibus collection, The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

the omnibus collection, The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method.

 

Trader To The Stars is not a generic Technic History collection but a specific Nicholas van Rijn collection. Its opening story, "Hiding Place," is neither the earliest installment of the Technic History nor even the first story about van Rijn. However, the first published van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit," required revision before its inclusion in a collection and the second van Rijn work is a novel. Thus, by a process of elimination, "Hiding Place" became the first van Rijn episode to be collected.

The Earth Book Of Stormgate begins with a fictional introduction that refers to the events of the novel, The People Of The Wind. However, after that introduction, the first story that we read is "Wings of Victory," which was chronologically the earliest installment of the Technic History.

The Van Rijn Method:

begins with "The Saturn Game," which is the earliest installment;

 

immediately follows "The Saturn Game" with the Earth Book introduction and "Wings of Victory";

includes three stories about earlier exploits of two employees of van Rijn;

includes "Margin of Profit," the van Rijn novel and one other story featuring van Rijn before ending with "Hiding Place";

also includes two other Technic History stories and other Earth Book introductions as appropriate -

- a comprehensive Volume I of VII.