Although the two-page passage between "Wings of Victory" and "The Problem of Pain" does briefly introduce the second story, most of its text summarizes the intervening history:
the planetologist, Maeve Downey, published her autobiography, Far Adeventure, from which Hloch has extracted "Wings of Victory";
other members of the Olga expedition submitted scientific reports;
the Discovery gale-seized many Ythrians;
Terrans returned to Ythri for study, then trade;
Ythrians adopted modern technology;
to prevent international conflicts from destroying their planet, Terrans eventually established the Solar Commonwealth;
(the off-stage establishment of the Solar Commonwealth in the Technic History corresponds to the on-stage establishment of the UN world government, then the Solar Union, in the Psychotechnic History);
the Commonwealth was temporarily benign;
human beings explored their part of the galaxy and colonized habitable but uninhabited extra-solar planets;
Ythrians began interstellar travel, at first usually with Terrans;
the Olga had discovered Avalon which, too distant to be colonized in the early period, was eventually explored by Ythrians and human beings;
that exploration generated the second story in the Earth Book.
Today, the first working day of 2021, has been busy even for two retirees living under pandemic restrictions. Tomorrow, the blog should consider how Hloch's passages are presented in The Technic Civilization Saga and whether "The Problem of Pain" could be validly adapted as a Star Trek episode. (In fact, I am thinking more about that now.)
2 comments:
Keeping the Solar Commonwealth off-stage makes it easier to avoid being too detailed about the "between now and then" stuff.
This represents an advance in worldbuilding technique by Poul between the two series.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Back to work now after being two weeks on vacation, which was how I was able to keep up with you!
I think you should have mentioned as well how the more advanced choths on Ythri sometimes hired humans to be instructors teaching them how to make and use more advanced technology.
Mr. Stirling: I never thought of it like that. I have sometimes wondered how a Solar Commonwealth might have arisen on Earth. NOT peacefully, IMO, when I recall how Hloch said the story of its foundation was long and terrible. Another combox writer suggested its origins lay in a coalition of Western/Westernized nations allying to force some kind of order on a chaotic Earth. Perhaps it began as an alliance of Anglophone nations like the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? Am alliance which others like Japan and South Korea joined.
It's my opinion that an aggressive mainland China will be a major cause of the chaos we can expect in the coming years!
Ad astra! Sean
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