Dominic Flandry visits Merseia in his first novel, Ensign Flandry, published in 1966.
David Falkayn and the trader team visit Merseia in "Supernova"/"Day of Burning," published in 1967.
Thus, in the late 1960's, Poul Anderson was both expanding his Flandry series and linking it to his Polesotechnic League series. That linkage had been initiated by a single reference in the Captain Flandry story, "A Plague of Masters," in 1961.
The third element of the Technic History, the Ythrians, was not introduced until "Wings of Victory" in 1972 and its remaining instalments were all published in 1973 except for the omnibus The Earth Book Of Stormgate which was published in 1978.
I ought to have more to say about this but it is getting late here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I really, really, really like THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS! The novel has so many strengths and the planet Unan Besar is so carefully worked out and described. I would esp. point out Chapter II, where we see a striking depiction of Flandry's frustration with the fat and thumb-witted guardians of Terra and some of the things he wanted them to do, that they should be routinely doing.
Sandra Miesel did point out one possible flaw in PLAGUE, the colonists who settled Unan Besar ultimately descended from the Malay peoples of Malaysia and Indonesia. Instead of being polytheists as stated in PLAGUE, Unan Besarians should have been Muslims. I argued in another combox that one way to rationalize this was by assuming the settlers of Unan Besar descended from Malays who shook off Islam. Perhaps from Bali, where Islam seems to be only a thin and resented veneer.
Ad astra! Sean
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