The vastness of Poul Anderson's Technic History is shown by the fact that the trade pioneer crew sub-series, although substantial, comprises only five of forty three instalments. Van Rijn, Falkayn, Adzel and the Polesotechnic League appear variously in eleven further instalments. There are three pre-League and twenty four post-League instalments. Post-League, of course, divide into five pre-Flandry, fifteen Flandry period and four post-Flandry, with further sub-divisions. It is getting late and I have got mixed up calculating these numbers. They show that we can spend a lot of time appreciating one major part of the History while for the time being giving no attention to other, even longer, sections. Falkayn can occupy us for quite a while before we turn to van Rijn, to Flandry or to any of the sixteen instalments featuring none of these characters. But that is enough for now. Good night.
5 comments:
IIRC, the first van Rijn story was not written as part of that continuity.
Correct. It had to be revised for inclusion.
Kaor, to Both!
And that was made necessary when Anderson impulsively mentioned Polesotechnarch van Rijn in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, one of the Flandry stories, which was originally a separate series.
Ad astra! Sean
That gives it more realism, IMHO. It keeps it from feeling unrealistically 'smooth'. Actual history is always going off on weird tangents driven by strings of unlikely coincidences.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! I agree.
Ad astra! Sean
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