Four Decades

Because we count from 1 to 10, not from 0 to 9, we should count a decade, century or millennium from a year ending -1 to a year ending -0. Thus, four decades in the second half of the twentieth century were:

1951-1960

1961-1970

1971-1980

1981-1990

These were the decades during which Poul Anderson wrote his History of Technic Civilization.

(Because I was born on 1 January, 1949, these decades were also when I was reading sf, starting with comic strips in the 50's, then with paperbacks in the 60's. All those past futures...)

However, only two Technic History instalments were published in the 80's:

"The Saturn Game" (1981), which, in terms of the fictional chronology of the series, is the earliest episode;

The Game Of Empire (1985), which is the last novel to feature Dominic Flandry and the fifth last instalment in the series.

1951-1960

In this decade, there was a Terran Empire series and a Polesotechnic League series which had not yet coalesced into a single Technic History series.

Terran Empire

"The Star Plunderer" (September, 1952) (pre-Empire; Manuel Argos)

"Sargasso of Lost Starships" (January, 1952)  (post-Argos; pre-Flandry)

"Tiger by the Tail" (January, 1951) (Flandry)

"Honorable Enemies" (May, 1951) (Flandry; Aycharaych)

"The Warriors from Nowhere" (Summer, 1954) (Flandry; Chives)

"The Game of Glory" (March, 1958) (Flandry)

"A Handful of Stars" (June, 1959) (Flandry; Aycharaych)

"A Message in Secret" (December, 1959) (Flandry)

"A Plague of Masters" (December, 1960-January, 1961) (Flandry)

"A Twelvemonth and a Day" (January, 1960) (post-Empire)

Some Observations So Far

To reflect the fictional chronological order, I have listed the two pre-Flandry stories first and the single post-Empire story last. However, apart from that, everything else is in publication order. In that order, the series begins appropriately with the first published Captain Flandry story in January, 1951, and ends in December, 1960 - albeit running over into January, 1961.

There are ten instalments of a four-period future history series. The Captain Flandry series is almost complete, lacking only its concluding novel, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows (1974), later expansions to "A Message in Secret" and "A Handful of Stars" and later revisions to "Tiger by the Tail," "Honorable Enemies" and "The Warriors from Nowhere." The single post-Empire story will be expanded and re-entitled in 1963 and re-entitled again in 1978. This information is complicated to summarize.

The Polesotechnic League

"Margin of Profit" (September, 1956) (van Rijn)

The Man Who Counts (February-April, 1958) (van Rijn)

Some Further Observations

So far, the Polesotechnic League series comprises only two instalments about Nicholas van Rijn. But these two main characters of the Technic History, Flandry and van Rijn, have both been introduced in the 1950's.

When "Margin of Profit" is incorporated into the Technic History, it has been revised and is no longer the opening instalment. Instead, it is preceded by one story published in 1981 and by two others published in 1973 and is also contemporaneous with yet another published in 1973. It is not only the first van Rijn story but also part of something much longer and vaster. 

Twelve instalments published in the first decade and two in the 1980's leaves twenty-nine instalments that were published in the two intervening decades. Will we also analyze those decades?

Important Events Published In The 1960's

League and Empire become a single series.

David Falkayn and the trader team are introduced.

The Flandry series expands backwards from "Captain Flandry."

Important Event In The 1970's

The Ythrians are introduced.

The Polesotechnic League series concludes.

The Flandry series expands forwards.

I wrote in the preceding post that the League and Empire series were first linked in "A Plague of Masters" in 1961. In fact, "A Plague of Masters" was first published as a book under the alternative title, Earthman, Go Home!, in 1961 but had previously been serialized in December, 1960-January, 1961, so maybe the League-Empire link was published at the end of 1960 rather than at the beginning of 1961?