Back To The Technic History

Comparing mixed ecologies has diverted attention back to Poul Anderson's Technic History. In the original publication order of that future history series, we read The People Of The Wind, then the Introduction to The Earth Book Of Stormgate, which follows directly from The People Of The Wind, whereas, in the fictional chronological order of Baen Books' seven-volume omnibus collection, The Technic Civilization Saga, we read the Afterword to the Earth Book, then The People Of The Wind, which is chronologically the next instalment after the last story in the Earth Book. The series turns itself inside out if we conceptualize, then reconceptualize, it in these two alternative reading orders. The Technic History is at its most future historical in this intermediate period when two stories about the colonization of Avalon and two about the founding and early days of the Terran Empire are followed by The People Of The Wind in which the Empire attempts to annex Avalon. These stories, set centuries apart, can have no common characters. David Falkayn's son and grandson appear in the first Avalon colonization story and their remote descendant, Tabitha Falkayn, features in The People Of The Wind. Most of this action is post-van Rijn and all of it is pre-Flandry: the Technic History at its best.