Afterword And Introduction

In Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate, a single interstitial passage by Hloch serves first as an afterword to "Lodestar," then as an introduction to "Wingless." Thus, the passage begins by stating that everyone knows that the events of "Lodestar" eventually led to the Babur War for possession of Mirkheim. We, who are not Hloch's intended Avalonian audience but Poul Anderson's twentieth or now twenty-first century readers, know of the Babur War if we have read Mirkheim before the Earth Book, as we are assumed to have done. In The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume II concludes with "Lodestar" and Volume III opens with Mirkheim which therefore precedes the interstitial passage introducing "Wingless." Thus, this time, we have just read about the Babur War. Anyone who first reads the Technic History in the Saga might wonder why Hloch summarizes what has just been recounted but the answer is that Mirkheim had not immediately preceded this interstitial passage in the original publication order. Complicated but worth unravelling.