Read as Volume IV of the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, Mirkheim indeed recounts the end of an era. Before he destroys the splendid towers of the Abdallah Enterprises centrum on Hopewell with a torpedo, David Falkayn thinks:
"This was a grand era in its way. I too will miss it." (p. 266)
However, in The Technic Civilization Saga, Mirkheim is not an end but a beginning. The first Technic History installment to be collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, Mirkheim is followed by a new beginning for human beings and Ythrians on Avalon even before the Imperial Era opens. Founding the colony on Avalon is what Falkayn does after destroying Seven In Space installations on Hopewell and elsewhere. History continues. I think that we can fully appreciate the Technic History only if we continually remember its original reading order. Maybe the series should even be republished in two formats with alternative reading orders but also with new introductions explaining this idiosyncratic procedure?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But it was fair of Falkayn to characterize the events of the Mirkheim/Babur crisis as the ending of an era. It was the end of an optimistic, forward looking, expansionist, and confident phase in human interstellar history.
I know you like Avalon, and the joint human/Ythrian colony David Falkayn founded there. But, really, how much did or could a single planet like Avalon MATTER in galactic history? Aside, of course, from the role it later indirectly played in helping to save the Empire in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean,
MIRKHEIM IS the end of an era but also, in the SAGA, it is the opening installment of a volume whose title begins RISE... Two perspectives on the same events.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
True, the rise of the Terran Empire did bring a restoration of order for most of the territory covered by Technic Civilization. But first people had to suffer thru the decay of the Commonwealth and League, followed by the Time of Troubles.
Happy New Year! Sean
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