The Earth Book

Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate was published both as a single volume and in three volumes. I expect that, by now, the Earth Book is not only out of print but also regarded as redundant because it has been superseded by the more comprehensive seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga from Baen Books. The Saga presents the complete History of Technic Civilization whereas the Earth Book formed the concluding volume of the first part of the History.

However, the Earth Book is worth preserving as a discrete volume despite its duplication of part of the contents of the Saga, Volumes I-III. The Earth Book is in itself a future history, covering no less than six periods:

the Grand Survey and first contact with Ythri (1 instalment);

Ythrian-human exploration of Gray/Avalon (1);

the Polesotechnic League (8);

human-Ythrian colonization of Avalon, first phase (1);

second phase (1);

the immediate aftermath of the Terran War on Avalon (Hloch's introductions).

The Saga, Volumes I-III add:

twenty-first century exploration of the Solar System (1);

the Polesotechnic League (8);

the Time of Troubles (1);

the early Terran Empire (1);

the Terran War on Avalon (1).

Volumes IV-VII:

the Flandry period ((15);

the Long Night (1);

the beginnings of recovery (2);

human civilizations in several spiral arms (1) -

- and the beginning of a new era of unprecedented wealth.