A Relayed Message

A message from Sol has been received at Alpha Centauri at the beginning of the Harvest Of Stars Tetralogy, Volume II, The Stars Are Also Fire, and has been relayed to Amaterasu by the beginning of Volume IV, The Fleet Of Stars. That is how slowly events proceed on an interstellar scale at sub-light speeds. In fact, it is so slow that many readers might not realize that these must be the same message.

"Long afterward, there came to Alpha Centauri the news of what had happened on Earth and around Sol."

-Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (New York, 1995), p. 1.

"...what had happened..." is recounted in this volume and that is what is summarized to his companion by Anson Guthrie when he has received the relayed message at the beginning of Volume IV. Of course, characters telling other characters what has happened is also an economical way for the author to inform or remind his readers of what has happened in earlier volumes. Thus, despite its length, this tetralogy turns out to comprise a complex unity.