-Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 1-22 AT p. 3.
With its adjectives, "Grand" and "great," and the interstellar setting of Alpha and Beta Crucis, this opening sentence of the first story in the Earth Book sets the scene for Poul Anderson's main future history series, the History of Technic Civilization. The Grand Survey, the Technic equivalent of the Starship Enterprise's three-year mission, is seen only in this single story and the story's first-person narrator is not destined to become a continuing character in the series.
"'I'll be proud to call you my friend!'"
-Poul Anderson, "Rescue on Avalon" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 421-433 AT p. 433.
Whereas "Wings of Victory" describes first contact with Ythri, the concluding sentence of the last Earth Book story conveys the resolution of a particular human-Ythrian conflict on the jointly colonized planet of Avalon several centuries later.
Although I am currently rereading Anderson's later Harvest Of Stars future history, my attention returns to his earlier and greater Technic History. My copy of the Earth Book, forty-two years old, bought in a long-defunct London sf bookshop, has been sellotaped together and fallen apart again but fortunately its entire contents are reproduced in Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga.
2 comments:
I'm glad Baen's done the series -- I've acquired it recently in ebook format, so I can dip in at my pleasure.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: We see occasional mention of a FIRST Grand Survey, so there must have been at least one more exploratory expedition. And the first Grand Survey not only discover Ythri, but also Starkad and Merseia, FAR away in the other, opposite direction. No one could have predicted it at the time, but that discovery of Merseia was fateful!
I too have a hardback copy of THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE (Berkley/Putnam, second impression: 1978). But it's in very good condition and I always try to handle my books gently.
Mr. Stirling: In some ways, I'm old fashioned! I not only prefer to use cash for the smaller expenses of life, I also favor hard copy books. A book feels more REAL to me if I actually hold it and have to turn the pages.
Ad astra! Sean
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