Sunday 28 November 2021

Before "Hiding Place"

"Hiding Place" is neither the first story in Poul Anderson's Technic History nor even the first Nicholas van Rijn story but it was the first in the original reading order, beginning with the van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars. This meant starting in the middle of the history when a lot had already happened. "Hiding Place" is the eleventh and last story in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, where it is preceded by:

the previously uncollected "The Saturn Game";

seven works previously collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

two works previously collected in The Trouble Twisters.

Before "Hiding Place": 

the Ythrians, van Rijn, Falkayn and Adzel have all been introduced to the readers although not yet to each other;

the planet, Cynthia, has been mentioned twice although the Cynthian, Chee Lan, has not yet arrived;

Falkayn and other traders have worked on Ivanhoe, one of the planets that will later join Falkayn's Supermetals Company.

But much else has still to happen. 

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I remember reading somewhere (not sure where) that "Margin of Profit" was not included with TRADER TO THE STARS because too much in the original text of that story contradicted the background of the slowly gelling Technic series. A problem Anderson resolved by revising "Margin" and pub. the new version in THE EARTH BOOK.

Of course I remember Ivanhoe from "The Three-Cornered Wheel" and "The Season of Forgiveness." But not that Ivanhoans were among the members of the Supermetal consortium set up by Falkayn. The impression I've gotten being that Ivanhoans were too proud to accept what might be called "charity."

And I assume the Trillians of "A Little Knowledge" were not among the members of the Supermetals consortium because they had independently achieved FTL.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

The original "Margin of Profit" is obviously inconsistent with the Technic History and I have given that reason for it not being included in TRADER...

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

It may well have been your comments I had in the back of my mind for thinking about why the original version of "Margin" was not included with TRADER.

Ad astra! Sean