Wednesday 17 July 2024

League And Ythrians

The Polesotechnic League period of Poul Anderson's Technic History not only is followed by the Troubles and the Terran Empire period but also is encompassed by the history of human-Ythrian interactions:

two of the three pre-Polesotechnic League instalments are about early contacts with Ythrians;

the concluding League novel is followed by three instalments about further human-Ythrian interactions, interrupted by two about the founding and early expansion of the Terran Empire;

half of the twenty four instalments collected in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III, including eight about the League, were previously collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate and therefore are introduced and afterworded by the Ythrian, Hloch of the Stormgate Choth on Avalon.

Thus, the Earth Book, the concluding volume of the first part of the Technic History, integrates the League and Ythrian histories. Introductions in the Saga are fictitiously written either by Hloch or by diverse human commentators. Thus, Hloch closes the Earth Book with A.A. Craig's account of an event on Avalon and is immediately followed by Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Archaeological Society, introducing Rear Admiral John Henry Reeves' account of Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire: a rich historiography, including some indications of what is to come although even the Terran Empire is not the end of the story. 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I still wish we had gotten story showing us the Trillians.

IIRC, Donvar Ayeghen was not sure how much was fact or fiction in Reeves memoirs.

Ad astra! Sean