Future Historiography

The Earth Book Of Stormgate collects twelve works by Poul Anderson with new introductions based on the background of his novel, The People Of The Wind. Leaving the new introductions in place, make four changes to the Earth Book:

(i) remove the last five works from this volume;

(ii) add the previously uncollected "The Saturn Game" at the very beginning;

(iii) add the first two of the three David Falkayn stories from The Trouble Twisters in the middle;

(iv) add the first of the three Nicholas van Rijn stories from Trader To The Stars at the end.

You have now transformed the Earth Book into The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I (of VII), The Van Rijn Method. The Earth Book, which need not be republished as such, was like a first draft of the first section of the Technic History.

Of the five remaining Earth Book installments, three are among the seven works collected in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, and two are among the six collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire.

The mid-point of Volume III is a peak of future historiography because that is the moment when Hloch, compiler of the Earth Book, hands the baton to Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaeological Society. Ayeghen introduces "The Star Plunderer," (1952) another of the very early stories that was not originally part of a future history series.

All of this is a far cry from Jim Ching struggling with tensor calculus in the fifth story in Volume I. A future history presents individual perspectives as well as millennial narratives.