The "Best Of The Technic History"

We do not need a Best Of Poul Anderson's Technic History collection because we have the entire History in a uniform edition and can each make our own judgements as to which are the best instalments. In any case, the series is uniformly good right through.

If there were a collection of about half a dozen "best," which ones would they be? Or, rather, how many versions of such a collection would there be?

My suggestions:

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson"

"The Season of Forgiveness"

"Lodestar"

The People Of The Wind

"Starfog"

These five are not distributed uniformly through the Technic History.

We have discussed each of these works more than once. "How To Be Ethnic..." is on my list because it introduces Adzel as seen through the eyes of one-off character, James Ching, and also gives us a glimpse of domestic life in the Solar Commonwealth; "The Season of Forgiveness" because it is an excellent Christmas story which also shows us another aspect of the Polesotechnic League without involving any of the continuing characters; "Lodestar" because it introduces Coya Conyon, dramatizes the generation gap between her and her grandfather, Nicholas van Rijn, informs us of the crisis in the League that will be fully developed in Mirkheim and climaxes with a crucial confrontation between van Rijn and Falkayn; The People Of The Wind because of its sense of living in troubled times, because it presents every point of view on war, because of its detailed realization of the environment of the planet, Avalon, and because of its presentation of the biracial society of Avalon; "Starfog" because it is our single glimpse of a remoter future far beyond League or Empire.