Although, like every other Poul Anderson fan, I am extremely grateful to Baen Books and Hank Davis for collecting Anderson's History of Technic Civilization in chronological order of fictitious events for the first time ever in their seven-volume
The Technic Civilization Saga, I also want to preserve at least the memory of the original reading order because, in that order, the history of the Polesotechnic League had seemed to be complete in eight installments and four volumes yet another eight installments, as many again, were concealed within a single omnibus collection,
The Earth Book Of Stormgate. There are other good things about that original reading order but I have extolled them often enough before.
At present, we are reconsidering The People Of The Wind which, in the original reading order, comes between the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy and the Earth Book but, in the Saga, comes at the end of Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire. The People Of The Wind is the fourth work set on Avalon and is our main source of information about that planet. We can get inside Avalonian life by following the experiences of a human member of Stormgate Choth.
7 comments:
Kaor, Pau!
What was the very first story or book by Poul Anderson that you read? For me, that would be the Chilton Books edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, when I think I was not yet quite 14 years old.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I can't remember. Anderson did not initially make a big impression on me. My first by Heinlein was STARMAN JONES, then later ORPHANS OF THE SKY.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Understood! And, besides Heinlein, it was also Blish's stories which made a strong impression on you, at about the same age I was when I first read AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
VAULT OF THE AGES, for me.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Now that was interesting! Esp. since I think you were often out of Canada as a boy, so I would have thought that made it unlikely you would have come across VAULT OF THE AGES. A juvenile novel, yes, but very good, IMO.
I think Nicholas Rosen said his first Anderson story was SATAN'S WORLD.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I bought large quantities of SF paperbacks every time we visited Canada, which was at least once a year. In fact, my parents used it as an incentive to study things I didn't particularly like, such as math. If I got an A, I could take a large carpetbag into a used book store and buy every book I could stuff into it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Amusing, and not a bad way to persuade boys like you to study hard!
Ad astra! Sean
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