Chee Lan to Adzel on the very last page:
"'We enjoyed the trader game as long as that lasted.'" (p. 291)
It is so appropriate that, in the original reading order of Poul Anderson's Technic History:
Mirkheim concluded the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy;
yet The Earth Book Of Stormgate then collected previously uncollected stories, including those that show Adzel as a student on Earth, the trader team on Merseia and the trader team confronting van Rijn at Mirkheim.
In the Earth Book, "Lodestar," about the confrontation at Mirkheim, is followed by one of Hloch's interstitial passages beginning:
"The rest would appear to be everyone's knowledge..."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), p. 293.
Hloch then summarizes the plot of Mirkheim:
Mirkheim's existence was publicly revealed;
this caused the Babur War which was also the first Commonwealth civil war and mortally wounded the League.
In Rise Of The Terran Empire, this passage is presented solely as an Introduction to the next story, "Wingless," which is a complete change of scene and tone.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One of the things that struck me about "Wingless on Avalon" and "Rescue on Avalon" was of how LOCAL the events in those stories were. I recall no mention at all of events off Avalon, even tho the Time of Troubles must have been at least beginning in the latter story.
Happy New Year! Sean
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