A Unique Sequence

 

When I stated here that the sixteen Polesotechnic League installments are preceded by two Ythrian short stories and succeeded by another two Ythrian short stories, between them forming a bloc of twenty of the forty-three Technic History installments, I neglected to add that eight of the PL installments were published in four volumes - two collections followed by two novels - , which I call the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, whereas the remaining eight PL installments were collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate where they are indeed preceded by the first two Ythrian short stories and succeeded by the other two. Since The People Of The Wind, a novel about human-Ythrian interactions, provides the background material for the new story introductions added in the Earth Book, these six volumes form a unique future historical sequence which would have become a trilogy if the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy had been republished as a single volume. Instead, Baen Books has collected the entire Technic History in chronological order of fictional events in the seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga and has also preserved the Earth Book introductions which means that an introduction early in Volume I assumes knowledge of the events of The People Of The Wind although that novel does not appear until the end of Volume III.

When rereading the Technic History, my attention alternates between details in a particular story, currently "Margin of Profit," and reflections on the History as a whole, especially on its two very different but equally valid reading orders.