Bright Noontide

Poul Anderson, The Long Night (New York, 1983).

Sandra Miesel's Prologue begins not in the Long Night but:

"In the bright noontide of the Polesotechnic League..." (p. 9)

She enthusiastically summarizes the activities of "...bold merchant-adventurers..." (ibid.) which allegedly spread:

"...across a whole spiral arm of Earth's galaxy and beyond." (ibid.)

Surely not that far? This is an example of different versions of a story differing in their details. Miesel mentions:

"The long lifespan of the era's greatest merchant prince, Nicholas van Rijn..." (pp. 9-10);

"...the shadows of institutional mortality..." (p. 10);

cartelization;

protectionism;

government corruption;

extra-terrestrial policies dictated by intervention, exploitation and expedience;

withering profits;

waning trade;

disrupted communications;

growing anarchy;

collapse of the Polesotechnic League;

the Time of Troubles;

the Baldic League;

the sack of Earth.

The Troubles are a precursor of the Long Night.

Miesel is not as free to extend the History as Hloch does but she more than adequately summarizes it.