Building Blocks In The Earth Book

In the three novels collected first as The Imperial Stars, then as Young Flandry, Dominic Flandry rises from Ensign through Lieutenant (j.g.) and Lieutenant Commander to Commander. In the three stories collected as The Trouble Twisters, David Falkayn rises from apprentice through journeyman to Master Merchant and leader of the first trade pioneer crew. Thus, The Trouble Twisters is a "Young Falkayn" Trilogy although its contents are necessarily separated for chronological reasons in The Technic Civilization Saga. "The Three-Cornered Wheel" and "A Sun Invisible" are collected in Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, which introduces the Jerusalem Catholic Church, Ythrians, Adzel, the Polesotechnic League, Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn whereas "The Trouble Twisters" is collected in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, where it is the opening installment of the trader team series.

The trade pioneer crew or trader team comprises Falkayn (human, Hermetian), Adzel (Wodenite) and Chee Lan (Cynthian). The "Young Falkayn" Trilogy installments were published in 1963, 1966 and 1965, respectively. Thus, Falkayn made his second/third appearance in "The Trouble Twisters" whereas this story contains the first published appearances of his two team mates. However, a good future historian incorporates appropriate references into stories written later but set earlier. In this case, three relevant stories were collected first in The Earth Book Of Stormgate, then in The Van Rijn Method:

"Wings of Victory" (Analog, 1972) refers to Cynthia, Woden and Hermes;

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" (Future Quest, 1974) retro-introduces Adzel and refers to Cynthia;

in "Esau" (as "Birthright," Analog, 1970), a Cynthian ship carries the Solar Spice & Liquor's bluejack from Suleiman.

Also, in the third Young Flandry novel, The Rebel Worlds (1969), the Terran Empire had bought the planet Llynathawr from its Cynthian discoverers - but that novel is set later, in any case.

(There are errors in the Chronology of Technic Civilization as printed in The Van Rijn Method.)