Alternative Reading Orders Revisited

Hloch compiled The Earth Book Of Stormgate shortly after the events of The People Of The Wind. So far then, it follows that the Earth Book should be read between The People Of The Wind and Ensign Flandry. However, all twelve Technic History instalments collected in the Earth Book are set earlier than The People Of The Wind and are presented in that order in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III, with The People Of The Wind collected at the end of Volume III and Ensign Flandry at the beginning of Volume IV. It follows that it is only Hloch's twelve introductions and single afterword that are dated between The People Of The Wind and Ensign Flandry yet these passages are presented before and, in one case, after the appropriate instalments throughout Saga, Volumes I-III. Thus, very early in Volume I, we read references to the Terran War and to Avalonian choths that will not be comprehensible until we have read to the end of Volume III. However, we do not condemn confusion but commend complexity. While rereading Poul Anderson's Time Patrol instalment, "Star of the Sea," but also remembering his Technic History, we alternate between contemplating past history, including that of the Roman Empire, and future history, including that of the Terran Empire. Anderson's works are comprehensive, also including alternative pasts and futures.