Chronological Order

In fictional chronological order, "The Star Plunderer," published in September, 1952, succeeds "Rescue on Avalon," published in 1973. Therefore, these two stories are presented to be read in this order in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, published in March, 2011. The Earth Book Of Stormgate, published in 1978, closes with "Rescue on Avalon" while The Long Night, published in 1983, opens with "The Star Plunderer." Thus, to this extent at least, The Long Night reads like a sequel to the Earth Book. Otherwise, of course, there are chronological gaps in both collections.

There are two kinds of fictional introductions. Whereas Donvar Ayeghen's fictional introduction to "The Star Plunderer" is simply the opening passage of this story as originally published, other Poul Anderson stories, collected in Trader To The Stars, The Trouble Twisters and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, acquired new fictional introductions and, in the case of the Earth Book, also a single fictional afterword only when collected. Nevertheless, all of these additional passages are reproduced in the Saga. Thus, in Volume III, the Earth Book afterword, fictitiously written long after the events of "The Star Plunderer," immediately precedes Ayeghen's fictional introduction fictitiously written an even longer time afterwards. Anderson gives us not only future history but also fictional historiography.