Order And Significance

Poul Anderson's "The Trouble Twisters" should be read at least twice, first in The Trouble Twisters, where it is the culmination of Volume II of the original Polesotechnic League series, and secondly in David Falkayn: Star Trader, where it is just the second of seven works of different lengths collected in Volume II of The Technic Civilization Saga. The culmination of David Falkayn's early career becomes the opening installment of a trader team series with three further installments in David Falkayn: Star Trader and a sequel, about the later reassembling of the team, in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire. After that, there are further sequels about Falkayn's descendants and successors on Avalon. Without any textual changes, the interconnections and significations of individual stories can be altered by reading them in a different order. In the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets follow the Books of the Law and apply them to history whereas, in the Christian Bible, the Prophets precede the New Testament and prophesy the Messiah. This comparison is appropriate because The Sky Book Of Stormgate, which we do not read, and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, which has been published both as a single volume and as a paperback trilogy before being incorporated into the Saga, are the history of a people and of their exodus to a new world.