Saga And Earth Book

In Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, we read Hloch's AFTERWORD to The Earth Book Of Stormgate at the mid-point of Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, then read the novel, The People Of The Wind, at the end of that omnibus volume even though we understand that the Earth Book is composed in the aftermath of the events of The People Of The Wind. In the alternative and earlier reading order, the Earth Book immediately follows The People Of The Wind. Reading it that way, we already understand a great deal before we open the Earth Book. 

We already know that:

Stormgate is the name of an Avalonian choth;

Avalon is a human colony planet with a large Ythrian minority;

the "choth" is the basic unit of Ythrian social organization after the family;

Ythrians are flying carnivores so their psychology, sociology and theology differ from ours.

Reading Hloch's first Earth Book INTRODUCTION which, in the Saga, comes near the beginning of Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, we find:

"To those who read, good flight. 

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother. His Wyvan, son of Lythran and Blawsa, has asked this. Weak though his grip upon the matter be, bloodpride requires he undertake the task."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

We know that:

the Weathermother is theYthrian name for the Andromedas, the highest mountain range on Avalon;

Stormgate is based in the Weathermother;

a Wyvan is a judge;

Lythran and Blawsa are the heads of a household;

bloodpride, also called deathpride, is the highest obligation for an Ythrian.

Further along, we find references to the human towns, Gray and Centauri, and to the Terran War. The People Of The Wind describes a lot of activity in both those towns and is entirely focused on the Terran War. In the Saga, these references are tantalizing hints of what is to come. We should read the Technic History in one order and reread it in the other.