Entry Point

Although Trader To The Stars, a single collection of three short stories about Nicholas van Rijn, has been superseded by The Technic Civilization Saga, seven omnibus volumes collecting Poul Anderson's entire History of Technic Civilization in chronological order of fictional events for the first time, Trader..., originally Volume I of the Technic History, might still serve as a convenient entry point to this future history series, allowing readers to decide whether they want to learn more about van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League as well as about the longer fictional history encompassing them.

Trader... collects:

"Hiding Place"

"Territory"

"The Master Key"

Placing these three stories in their future historical contexts, we find that:

10 instalments (3 pre-League, 3 van Rijn, 2 Falkayn, 1 Adzel, 1 other) precede "Hiding Place";

2 trader team stories come between "Territory" and "The Master Key";

3 van Rijn and trader team instalments plus 1 other follow "The Master Key."

That completes the pre-League and League periods of the Technic History. The final League instalment, Mirkheim, is the first of six instalments collected in Saga, Volume III. My fascination with the mercurial structure of the Technic History focuses on the pre-Flandry periods, collected in Saga, Volumes I-III. The Flandry period covers Volumes IV-VI and the first half of VII but there are more millennia of history in the four remaining instalments. What a future history series!