Concluding Conversations And Continuity

Mirkheim, XXI.

This chapter is three conversations.

The first, between Eric Tamarin-Asmundsen and David Falkayn, ends:

"'[Family]'re what life is all about, right?' said Falkayn, and drank." (p. 283)

The second, between van Rijn and Grand Duchess Sandra, ends with:

"He offered his arm. She took it and they returned to the house of her fathers." (p. 288)

The third, between Adzel and Chee Lan, ends with him carrying her while:

"Above the cliffs, a few eastern clouds turned red." (p. 291)

Sunset colours but coming from the direction of the morning. All three pairs of characters expect to maintain contact but we will not see them again.

In The Earth Book Of Stormgate, "Lodestar" is followed by Hloch's Introduction to "Wingless." The Introduction begins:

"The rest would appear to be everyone's knowledge..."

-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 293-306 AT p. 293.

"The rest," when summarised, turns out to be the plot of Mirkheim:

"...how at last, inevitably, the secret of Mirkheim's existence was ripped asunder..." (ibid.)

- etc.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Mirkheim is collected in its correct chronological order between "Lodestar" and "Wingless." Thus, we are reminded of the Babur War having just read about the Babur War. There is seamless continuity from the novel to the Earth Book Introduction to the short story but there is also non-stop alternation between perspectives. "Wingless" and the following story are "...told from youthful hoverpoints..." (p. 294) and, although Judith Dalmady/Lundren writes "Wingless" in "...her high old age..." (ibid.), the memories that she draws on are fresh. We saw Judith's father, Emil, as a young man confronting Baburites and van Rijn in "Esau." In "Wingless," Nat Falkayn receives advice from his father, Nicholas, born near the end of Mirkheim, and also refers to his grandfather, David. Youth and age in every generation.