Completed Works

An author's works exist in time, not just on a bookshelf. The order in which we read them may not be the order in which we would originally have read them. Prequels written later can now be read either before or after. Poul Anderson's complete Time Patrol series grew through five stages:

Guardians Of Time (four stories)

The Guardians Of Time (five)

Annals Of The Time Patrol (seven)

The Time Patrol (nine)

Time Patrol (ten)

- although the order in which the stories are presented does not correspond to the order in which they should be read and the tenth story, "Death And The Knight," really belongs at the end of the novel, The Shield of Time.

The early part of Anderson's Technic History comprised six volumes and three short stories. Those three stories could have been collected in what would have become the fifth of seven volumes -

Volumes I-IV: the Polesotechnic League

Volume V: neither League nor Ythrians

Volume VI: Ythrians

Volume VII: both League and Ythrians

- but the entire Technic History is now collected in chronological order in seven volumes as Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga.

So read the Time Patrol in two volumes and the Technic History in seven volumes but also appreciate their publication history.