Alternative Collections

Here are some anomalies of publication.

The Poul Anderson collection, Explorations (New York, 1981), begins with "The Saturn Game" and ends with "Starfog." The seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga (Riverdale, NY, 2009-2012) also begins with "The Saturn Game" and ends with "Starfog." Thus, there are two ways to read these two stories, either with four other unconnected stories between them or with the whole of the rest of the Technic History between them. If we do it the first way, then there is nothing to indicate that these opening and closing stories are the beginning and end of a future history series. Both are about exploration but in different periods and on different scales.

"Starfog" is the last story in:

Explorations (above);

The Night Face and other stories (Gregg Press, 1978);

The Long Night (New York, 1983);

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012).

At least, I deduce that "Starfog" must be the last story in The Night Face... That is the one that I do not have a copy of.

Explorations is not a Technic History collection. The other three are. The Night Face... collects the last four Technic History instalments. Flandry's Legacy collects the last six. The Long Night collects three of the last four preceded by two earlier instalments. Complicated but that is how it happened.