I have become more inclined to think that both the contents and the title of the existing Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy, make sense. The legacy of a man's earlier and middle years begins to appear during his later years. It continues after his death but has begun before then.
A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, A Stone In Heaven and The Game Of Empire do not really comprise a concluding Flandry Trilogy. A Knight... concludes the Captain Flandry series. Flandry has retained his freedom of movement by not as yet accepting the rank of Admiral. Instead, he answers directly to the recently installed new Emperor, Hans I, on a roving commission.
This is very different from the situation in A Stone In Heaven at the beginning of Flandry's Legacy when Flandry, now a Vice Admiral, has his own staff and his legacy is becoming apparent. The new Molitor dynasty which he has supported is firmly established and his achievement at Chereion is discretely referred to. Flandry, now a Fleet Admiral, merely cameos in The Game Of Empire which is a proto-series about his daughter. Starkadians have been settled on Imhotep.
In the four post-Flandry installments, certain planets have survived the Long Night, Vixen has even established a colony and the descendants of rebels expelled by Flandry have thrived and now re-contact civilization. These six works fit together.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And it gets more complicated if we think in terms of a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON, a la the VIRGINIA EDITION of the works of Robert Heinlein. I think it would make sense for one volume to comprise only "Outpost of Empire" and THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, to be called OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE. Another volume might collect the four post Flandry stories, plus including the original texts of the five Technic stories Anderson revised (including "The White King's War") and be called THE POST IMPERIAL ERA.
It might be a problem trying to think of a satisfactory way to handle the fictional introductions Anderson wrote for the stories in THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE in a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
If a COMPLETE WORKS meant everything in original publication order, then I would not want that. I would want the Technic History in either of its two reading order with all the fictional introductions in their proper places.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
No, that is not what I would want in a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON. I would want series to be collected in their own volumes in terms of internal chronological order. Such as the Hoka series, the Psychotechnic series, the Technic series, etc. No objection to keeping Hloch's comments.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But then there would be no problem about where to put the fictional introductions.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You would keep Hloch's introductions in a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS prefacing the stories as we find those introductions in THE EARTH BOOK?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Yes. As they are in THE TECHNIC CIVILIZATION SAGA.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I should have thought of that as well. I have no objection to keeping Hloch's introductions and arranging the texts in a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS as we see them in the TECHNIC CIVILIZATION SAGA.
Ad astra! Sean
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