After "The Master Key"

After "The Master Key," the focus shifts. We now see not only people within the Polesotechnic League but also the problems of the League. Thus, although the institution survives an external threat in Satan's World, its internal problems multiply through "A Little Knowledge" and "Lodestar" and reach a crescendo in Mirkheim, the first instalment to be collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire. And that is our last sight of the League. In fact, the title of Volume III warns readers of a change of historical periods although both League and Empire are regarded as phases of Technic civilization and that civilization will last until the Fall of the Terran Empire some time in Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy, the Fall to be followed by the Long Night, then by later civilizations. The Technic History is so internally interconnected that it is difficult to refer to one of its parts without referring to every other part. However, I find Volumes I-III particularly intricate and organic.