Saturday 13 February 2021

Collections Or Novels

With minimal editing, the contents of the two Dominic Flandry collections could be repackaged as two composite novels, like Poul Anderson's The Star Fox which is about a different hero in a different future.

Of the three works collected as Flandry Of Terra:

"The Plague of Masters" is a direct sequel to "A Message in Secret";

if "The Game of Glory," at the beginning, were to be removed and replaced by "Warriors from Nowhere," at the end, then the latter would serve as a prelude to the following volume, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Of the four works that would then comprise Agent Of The Terran Empire, "Hunters of the Sky Cave," which we have been discussing under its alternative title, We Claim These Stars, begins shortly after Flandry has returned from the Nyanza affair, i.e., from the events of "The Game of Glory," and the events of "Honourable Enemies" occur during the opening page of "The Game of Glory." Thus, these three narratives are continuous. The events of "Tiger By The Tail" are referred to in "Honourable Enemies" and therefore precede the tripartite narrative. Since Flandry meets Aycharaych for the first time in "Honourable Enemies" and captures him, only to see him released in a prisoner exchange, at the end of "Hunters of the Sky Cave," these episodes in particular become even more closely integrated. They should be seen as stages of Flandry's biography rather than as discrete narratives. 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But I see nothing wrong with keeping these middle Flandry stories in the most correct possible chronological possible. It was because of your that I painstakingly revised my article about Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, to take into account the indications you pointed out could be found in the stories telling us how best to list them.

Because of Anderson's revising of "Warriors from Nowhere," that story now has to be placed after HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE, and before A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.

I do agree that the Flandry stories gives us a lot of biographical information about Sir Dominic. They are connected narratives, not totally independent tales. But readers can enjoy them in any order they prefer.

Ad astra! Sean