The Old Order

I still like the original reading order of Poul Anderson's Technic History which gave us an eight-installment Polesotechnic League series in the first four volumes, then, after a single Ythrian volume, The People Of The Wind, gave us a second eight-installment Polesotechnic League series sandwiched between four Ythrian short stories and with new Ythrian-written introductions in the collection, The Earth Book Of Stormgate. We read Nicholas van Rijn's chronologically last Technic History appearance in the fourth Polesotechnic League volume, Mirkheim, but then he returns in the fourth Earth Book installment, in fact in his chronologically first appearance in "Margin of Profit," which had been quoted in the first Polesotechnic League volume, Trader To The Stars.

Since the first eight-installment series is six stories followed by two novels whereas the second is seven stories plus one novel, the two series are comparable in length. This future history series works not only because of the high quality of the individual installments but also because of the complicated relationships between them.