Monday, 11 January 2021

A Potent Collection

Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate is one potent Technic History collection. It contains:

all five short stories featuring Ythrians, including three set on Avalon, thus prequels to The People Of The Wind;

the first Nicholas van Rijn story;

an entire van Rijn novel;

"Esau" and "Lodestar," prequels to Mirkheim;

("Esau" introduces the Baburites; "Lodestar" introduces Mirkheim; in Mirkheim, the Baburites go to war for Mirkheim);

"Day of Burning," about Falkayn saving Merseia;

four juvenile short stories, each highlighting a distinct detail of Technic civilization - Adzel's chronologically earliest appearance, Christmas on Ivanhoe, Falkayn's grandson on an Avalonian island, a Holm on the Avalonian continent;

"A Little Knowledge" which, like "Lodestar," reveals problems in the Polesotechnic League;

Hloch's introductions which link this volume to characters and events in The People Of The Wind and to the Terran Empire.

Although there are just twelve installments in the Earth Book, some appear twice in the above list.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I regret that "A Little Knowledge" is the only time in the Technic series that we see the Trillians, a very intriguing species! As Witweet shows, it can be very risky to let yourself be deceived by appearances.

Ad astra! Sesn