Time Lag

Poul Anderson, "Time Lag" IN The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham, MA, 2009), pp. 241-265.

Traditionally, Rome was founded in 753 BC. Some Roman historians counted years AUC, Ab Urbe Condita, "From the Founding of the City." Poul Anderson's "Time Lag" is divided into five sections headed:

522 Anno Coloniae Conditae 
538 A.C.C.
553 A.C.C.
569 A.C.C.
584 A.C.C.

Thus, the narrative covers sixty two years of the human colony on the extra-solar planet Vaynamo which has thirty hour days and natural equivalents of elves.

The Alfavala:

live in nests;
are "...wild little folk...," flitting and twittering, with glowing eyes (p. 241);
have "...long ears, flat nostrils, feathery antennae...green hair..." (p. 242);
either keep to the forests or serve men like dogs;
can speak a few words and use simple tools;
are more animal than rational;
are safe to be with because sensitive to danger;
but not essential to the story -

- and, although I have read "Time Lag" at least twice, I had completely forgotten these Vaynamoan natives until I reread the opening passage in The Collected Short Works.

Prophecy

"Prophecy" by Poul Anderson was published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1949 - when I was four months old. I cannot find the Astounding cover for that month but here is the cover of the issue that contained the same author's "The Helping Hand" (May 1950).

Both stories:

are republished in The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham MA, 2009);

ask whether a more advanced civilization can meaningfully help a less advanced one;

answer "no" - although in different ways.

One answer is to show help given with disastrous results. The other is to show help refused because the more advanced civilization is wise enough to know the consequences.

I found "Prophecy" uncharacteristically disappointing. In this story, there is no imaginative speculation about extra-solar life forms. Human forms are assumed just to serve the single point of the story. (We are in Jonathan Swift territory: Gulliver encounters Lilliputians, Brobdingnagians, Laputans etc so that Swift can satirize humanity.) "Prophecy" comprises a single conversation summarizing the recognizable Andersonian theme of historical cycles but ending with the bald statement that the alien psychotechnicians cannot help and must leave humanity to learn the hard way even though that way includes atomic wars: too much discussion and too little dramatization of the issues.

"Genius," nicely contrasted with "Backwardness" in the same collection, includes even more socio-historical exposition by its protagonists but incorporates this material more effectively into the narrative which in this case gives us some impression of what a more intelligent civilization might conceivably look like.

Diversity

The immediately preceding post was composed in haste just before rushing out to a meeting. I tried yet again to convey the range of Poul Anderson's scientifically informed imagination, this time by summarizing his account of a fictitious life form flourishing on asteroids, meteors and, when they arrive, spaceships.

In recent blog posts:

Sean M Brooks has listed many uncollected fictional and nonfictional works by Poul Anderson and has discussed the complex chronology of Anderson's History of Technic Civilization;

I have discussed theology, sociology, artificial intelligence and hypothetical space-dwelling organisms.

We owe this diversity of subject-matters to Anderson. Serious scientific and philosophical discussions are generated by ideas that he presents as entertaining fiction. Some of his readers appreciate both the fiction and the discussion.

The asteroidal "barnacles" are a far cry from theological or historical debates but are akin to Anderson's speculations about material processes in the planetary system of a wandering red dwarf star and in another system where a super-Jovian planet is falling into its sun. (These were two of his Man-Kzin Wars stories that I discussed recently.)

I have one more story to read and discuss in The Collected Short Works, Volume 1. Then I had better set about acquiring the remaining Volumes.

Life In The Asteroid Belt

Poul Anderson, "Barnacle Bull" IN The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham MA, 2009), pp. 399-411:

a mutant life-form had existed on the asteroidal planet;
it adapted to space during the slow break-up of the larger fragments;
it uses an unidentified liquid other than water which would boil or freeze in space;
its chemistry is carbon and silicon;
adults eject freely drifting spores;
a few flourish on stony bodies;
powered by sunlight, the "barnacles" extract silicon, carbon and metals and excrete the metals by laying a plating under their shells;
the shell resists radiation and holds a charge that attracts dust;
water and free oxygen poison the barnacles and atmospheric friction destroys them;
barnacles destroy space probes' radio transmitters by eating their silicon components;
settling and multiplying on a spaceship's hull, the barnacles lay down heavy metal plating which interferes with the magnetic fields generated to divert ions from the ship, causes cosmic rays penetrating the plating to produce secondary radiation and increases the ship's mass but also shields the ship against meteor impacts;
magnetic screens must be differently heterodyned and radio transmitters must be protected.

After Genius

I had definitely not read Poul Anderson's "Genius" before and it is an interesting story. After it in the NESFA Press The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham MA, 2009), there are:

"The Live Coward"
"Time Lag"
"The Man Who Came Early"
"Turning Point"
"The Alien Enemy"
"Enough Rope"
"The Sharing of Flesh"
"Welcome"
"Flight to Forever"
"Barnacle Bull"
"Time Heals"
"The Martian Crown Jewels"
"Prophecy"
"Kings Who Die"
"Starfog"

I had already read all but three of these works and have quickly read the rather lackluster "The Martian Crown Jewels" since acquiring the book so there is not much left before Vol 2, which I have yet to order. However, the remaining stories will be read and commented on.

Despite their exotic interstellar settings, "The Helping Hand" and "Genius" are serious discussions of how societies develop. I thought that I had finished comparing Isaac Asimov unfavorably with Poul Anderson but here again Anderson presents a more interesting account of a ruling group applying to society a mathematically formulated, predictive science of society. Station Seventeen, secretly directing the Empire, is like a Second Foundation but based on intelligence, not on hypnosis.

The geniuses of Station Seventeen, which is an entire planet, are intelligent, perceptive and cooperative enough to share socially necessary menial tasks equally among their entire population rather than relegating a social majority to lifetimes of drudgery. Mass-production will have to wait until mechanical knowledge is sufficient to develop entirely automatic factories because "'...few if any geniuses could stand to work on an assembly line all day.'" (p. 212) However, they "'...are in no hurry to advance their standard of living.'" (ibid.)

Production has, perhaps, four stages:

hunting and gathering;
horticulture and agriculture;
manufacturing, eventually industrialized;
automation.

In our history, the second and third stages necessitated social stratification and competition whereas the eventual production of abundance should make stratification and competition redundant. The geniuses manage every stage of production without either stratification or competition.

A society of geniuses has super geniuses who are as far beyond the ordinary mind as logic is beyond instinct. The surprise ending is a real surprise but also logical. The geniuses have already outwitted the Imperial social experimenters.

Occasional raiders from the Magellanic Clouds are also a neat idea.

The Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson, by Sean M. Brooks

It would be easy for a zealous fan of the works of Poul Anderson, such as myself, to boast of how complete a collection I have.  I could brag of how many hard cover first editions I have, including rarities.  BUT, when I compiled this list of works by Anderson which I DON'T have or have not read, then I see how little right I have for boasting.  Because, as anyone can see from reviewing this list, FAR too many of Poul Anderson's  essays and stories has not yet been republished or collected.  This list strengthens my conviction that we need a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON if interested readers are going to be able to access even the most obscure of his essays and stories.

For this list I leaned heavily on the bibliography of the works of Poul Anderson compiled by Jean-Daniel Breque and included by him as an appendix to his French translation of a collection of Anderson's Time Patrol stories.  I own M. Breque many thanks for giving me a copy of his translation of those stories.  I have also found the listing of Anderson's works in the special Poul Anderson issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION for April 1971 to be very helpful.  I have not included (aside from a very few exceptions) in this compilation stories which has been collected in anthologies which I either have or can be easily found elsewhere.

One point which concerns me is how many of the stories I listed below were first published in now obscure and little known magazines which has long since ceased being printed.  Because I think it is possible all of the issues of some of these forgotten magazines might disappear--meaning that the Anderson stories they printed will be at risk of being permanently lost.

I drew upon the listing of Anderson's articles and essays found in the April 1971 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION for Section I of the list below.  However, that list is only good up till that year. Poul Anderson wrote other non fiction essays after that time as well, some of which, such as "Thud and Blunder," are important and can be found in collections like FANTASY.  In addition, it's possible Anderson wrote essays for magazines or newspapers later than the items listed in the April 1971 issue of F&SF which I have no knowledge of.

Moreover, the publication credits for the 1963 edition of Anderson's IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? states that part of Chapter 7 of that book was originally "Science and Superman, an Inquiry," which can be found listed in Section I below.  And part of Chapter 8 of the same book was originally "How Social is Science?," also listed below in Section I.  My point being that Poul Anderson sometimes revised or incorporated stories and essays for inclusion in other works.

While working on this article I was amazed yet again at how creative and prolific an author Poul Anderson was.  All by themselves, the 90 plus essays and stories I listed here would be considered a very respectable lifetime achievement for many writers.  Never mind the far larger number of better known stories and novels written by Anderson!  Of course, the reason for that is simple: Anderson had to sell as many stories, essays, and novels as possible if he was to make a living as a free lance writer.

It was maddening and frustrating to list so many unknown essays and stories written by Poul Anderson. For instance, what did Anderson write about in the article "Those Hairy Ancestors?  The Neanderthals or some other branch of the hominid family? And the very title of "Ashtaru the Terrible" is tantalizing!  And was "The Corpse in a Suit of Armor" another Trygve Yamamura mystery story?

To sum up, with a few exceptions (e.g., some of Anderson's stories for THE FLEET books) the tales I listed below are works I have not read.  It is humbling to see, despite my ardor in collecting the works of Poul Anderson, how MANY of these articles and stories I have not yet managed to find.  In addition, one reason I have compiled this list is to highlight for future editors striving to collect the works of Poul Anderson which of his lesser known articles and stories they should take pains in tracking down.  Other readers, of course, may well compile somewhat different lists.

I. Articles, Essays, Reviews
"The Einstein Rocket," DSF, Dec. 1952
"Those Hairy Ancestors," ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION (hereafter cited as ASF), Nov. 1954
"Plausibility in SF," WRITERS' YEARBOOK, 1956
"Nice Girls on Mars," THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION (hereafter cited as F&SF), May 1956
"The Troublesome Dimensions," ASF, Nov 1956
"How Social Is Science?," SATURDAY REVIEW, 27 April 1957
"Science and Superman, an Inquiry," AMAZING, Nov. 1959
"The Velocity of Gravitation," JOURNAL OF THE INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION SOCIETY, Dec, 1960
"The Helpful Friend of Mohammed Abdullah" [The Library Murder], in THE QUALITY OF MURDER, ed. Anthony Boucher, Dutton 1962
"Poetry, Science, and Fiction," AMAZING, Feb. 1965
"Life in Space," in ASTRONAUTICS FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS, ed. John Meiner, Wiley, 1965
Untitled Reply to Soviet Critics, F&SF, Oct. 1965
"In One More Generation," NATIONAL REVIEW, 30 Jan. 1968
Untitled book reviews, F&SF, April 1968
"Limiting Factor," IF, May 1968
Untitled memorial to Anthony Boucher, F&SF, August 1968
"Search for the Hunter," in ADVENTURES IN DISCOVERY, ed. Tom Purdom, Doubleday, 1969
"The Past That Never Was," NATIONAL REVIEW, 24 Feb. 1970
Introduction to FIRST STEP OUTWARD, ed. Robert Hoskins, Dell 2549, 1969
"Commentary" in MEN ON THE MOON, ed. Donald Wollheim, Ace 52470, 1969
"Editorial," ASF, Jan, 1972
"Science and Creation," ASF, Sept, 1973

II. Science Fiction and Fantasy

"A Matter of Relativity," ASF, September 1944
"Genius," ASF, December 1948
"Prophecy," ASF, May 1949
"Entity," in collaboration with John Gregen, ASF, June 1949
"The Perfect Weapon," ASF, February 1950
"Trespass," in collaboration with Gordon R. Dickson, FANTASTIC SERIES QUARTERLY, 1950
"The Long Return," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, Sep./Oct. 1950
"Witch of the Demon Seas," PLANET STORIES (hereafter cited as PS), January 1951
"The Acolytes," WORLDS BEYOND, February 1951
"World of the Mad," IMAGINATION, February 1951
"Incomplete Superman," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, March 1951
"Inside Earth," GALAXY, April 1951
"The Missionaries," OTHER WORLDS, June/July 1951
"The Virgin of Valkarion," PS, July 1951
"Swordsman of Lost Terra," PS, November 1951
"War-Maid of Mars," PS, May 1952
"Garden in the Void," GALAXY, May 1952
"Sentiment, Inc.", SPACE SCIENCE FICTION, February 1953
"The Green Thumb," SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, February 1953
"Security," SPACE SCIENCE FICTION, February 1953
"Ashtaru the Terrible," FANTASY MAGAZINE, March 1953
"Courier of Chaos," FUTURE SCIENCE FICTION, March 1953
"Three Wishes," FANTASTIC, March/April 1953
"Rachaela," FANTASY FICTION, June 1953
"The Temple of Earth," ROCKET STORIES, July 1953
"Butch," in TIME TO COME, anthology ed. by August Derleth, 1954
"Contact Point," collaboration with Theodore Cogswell, IF, August 1954
"Elliptic Orbit," IF, December 1954
"Snowball," IF, May 1955
"Catalysis," IF, February 1956
"Security Risk," ASF, January 1957
"Survival Technique," collaboration with Kenneth Gray, F&SF, March 1957
"Life Cycle," F&SF, July 1957
"Mister Tiglath, TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED, August 1957
"The Peacemongers," F&SF, December 1957
"The Apprentice Wobbler," STAR SCIENCE FICTION, January 1958
"The Barrier Moment," ASF, renamed ANALOG, March 1960
"The Covenant,"  FANTASTIC, July 1960
"Goodbye, Atlantis," FANTASTIC, August 1961
"The Enemy," TORONTO STAR WEEKLY, October 28, 1961
"Third Stage," AMAZING, February 1962
"In the Island of Uffa," WEST BY ONE AND BY ONE, anthology pub. 1965
"High Treason," IMPULSE, March 1965
"A Gift From Centauri," BOY'S LIFE, December 1967
"The Inevitable Weapon," ANALOG, March 1968
"The Galloping Hessian," BOY'S LIFE, October 1969
"I Tell You, It's True," NOVA 2, ed. Harry Harrison (1972), and in CONFLICT (1983)
"Strength," collaboration with Mildred D. Downey, in THE MAGIC MAY RETURN (ed. Larry Niven,1982)
"Letter from Tomorrow," ANALOG, August 1987
"The Deserter," NEW DESTINIES 4, ed. Jim Baen (1988)
"The Only Bed to Lie In," THE FLEET, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1988)
"The Death Wish, THE MICROVERSE, anthology ed. Byron Preiss (1989)
"Origin," NEW DESTINIES 4, anthology ed. Jim Baen (1989)
"Statesmen," NEW DESTINIES 8, anthology ed. Jim Baen (1989)
"Dereliction," THE FLEET 4: SWORN ALLIES, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1990)
"Kinetic Kill," THE FLEET: CRISIS, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1991)
"Unnatural Enemy," THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR, anthology ed. Byron Preiss & Robert Silverberg (1992)
"Scarecrow," NEW LEGENDS, anthology ed. Greg Bear & Martin H. Greenberg (1995)
"Renascence," ANALOG, March 1995
"Inside Passage," THE WILLIAMSON EFFECT, anthology ed. Roger Zelazny (1996)
"Tyranny," FREE SPACE, anthology ed. Brad Linaweaver & Edward E. Kramer (1997)
"Consequences," NATURE, vol. 405, no. 6784, May 18, 2000
"The Bog Sword," THE FIRST HEROES, anthology ed. Harry Harrison & Noreen Doyle (2004)

III. Mysteries and Adventures

"The Corpse in a Suit of Armor," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, November 1956
"The Trader and the Viking," JACK LONDON'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, October 1958
"Pythagorean Romaji," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, December 1959
"Stab in the Back," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, March 1960
"The Gentle Way," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, August 1960

Genius

Poul Anderson's "Genius" (Astounding, 1948) is very early. I have just spotted, while googling, a comment that it was Anderson's third published story. Have I read it before? I find that I have saved a copy of the Astounding cover although I do not remember doing so.

Having just read the first three pages, until the first break in the narrative, I have found several familiar story elements:

faster than light quasivelocity;
an interstellar Empire, with slaves;
peripheral barbarians;
psychotechnicians;
many implausibly humanoid, even "human," aliens;
an interstellar civilization secretly observing Earth;
a hint that Terrestrials are somehow special.

There is also what may be a covert reference to another writer about a Galactic Empire:

"...the foundation and the reason for the Empire..."
- Poul Anderson, The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson, Volume 1, (Framingham, MA, 2009), p. 197.

"Genius" should not be confused with "Details," which bears some of the listed common features. I am still not entirely sure whether I have read "Genius" before.

Addendum: It seems I have misunderstood some points but only because they are introduced allusively and gradually. In this case, the Empire is Solarian and the covertly observed planet is not Earth but somewhere else. I will have to read further (obviously) to unravel the plot.

NESFA Collections, Vol 1, continued

Yes, Poul Anderson's "The Immortal Game" presents not only a chess game but a classic one. It also addresses the issue of artificial intelligence. A human observer of the game wonders whether the computers controlling the chess pieces are conscious and have minds. He points out that the "'...feedback arrangement is closely analogous to a human nervous system.'"
- Poul Anderson, The Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson (Framingham, MA, 2009), p. 186.

If the feedback duplicates the processes of a nervous system, then the computers are conscious whereas, if it merely simulates a nervous system, then the computers are not conscious. However, a computer is an artifact that merely manipulates symbols according to rules whereas an artificial intelligence would be an artifact that also understood the meanings of the symbols. An unconscious mechanism can be programmed always to write "4" after "2+2=." We can do this but can also understand that two things of the same kind and another two things of that kind always add up to four of those things and also that those arbitrary symbols - 1,2,3 etc - which we recognize as Arabic numerals have no inherent meaning and could have been assigned some entirely different meanings, e.g.:

1   to be;
+   or;
1= to be not;
2   ? 

The computers in the story are programmed with the rules of chess but this would give them no knowledge of battles or of a bishop's feelings for his queen. They become active and, we gather, conscious at the beginning of each game/battle with no memory of any previous battles so they have had no opportunity to develop personal relationships.

The next story is "Backwardness," with which I am familiar, and, after that, is "Genius," which I think is unfamiliar. This gets me to nearly half way down the page-long table of contents. I am measuring it with a ruler.

NESFA Collections, Vol 1, continued

I have read so many Poul Anderson short stories in diverse collections that I forget titles. Thus, more of the contents of NESFA Collected Short Works Of Poul Anderson Vol 1 are familiar than I had expected:

"Tomorrow's Children" and "Logic" are the first two parts of Twilight World;

"Journeys End," misprinted here as "Journey's End," is that story about telepaths;

"Call Me Joe," "Wildcat" and "Time Patrol" are, of course, familiar.

"The Helping Hand" is old (Astounding, 1950) but was new to me. Despite its space operatic setting, the story ends not with victory in a space battle but with the look of loss in an old man's eyes.

"The Immortal Game" (F&SF, '54), which I have only just begun to read, soon reveals itself to be an account of a chess game with conscious pieces and, unlike "The White King's War," which has robot chess pieces on a giant board, this story might present the moves in a game of chess?

I will continue to work my way through the collection. I would have preferred the short verses to be in one section at the end. It is difficult to see how many prose works we have to read. This poem is not bad:

Autumn
Slowly the moon
Slides aloft.
Keen is its edge,
Cutting the dark.
Stars and frost,
As still as the dead,
Warn of another
Waning year.

"Sandra Miesel's Technic Civilization Chronology," by Sean M. Brooks

Prefatory Note.  Dr. Shackley kindly published on his blog (April 26, 2012) an earlier version of this essay written by me.  Since then, I decided it needed to be revised, mostly from dating the birth of Nicholas van Rijn to 2421 instead of my earlier suggestion he was born in 2424.  And that made it necessary to revise my suggested dates for the birth of David Falkayn and many of the stories set during the Polesotechnic League. I also found it necessary to change some of the dates for the stories set in the Imperial era.

Several editions of the Technic Civilization stories of Poul Anderson (Gregg Press, Ace Books, Baen Books) have attached to them a chronology compiled by Sandra Miesel, an excellent commentator on the works of Anderson.  This chronology lists in internal chronological order all the stories and novels of the Technic Civilization series through periods like that of the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire.  Miesel also added many annalistic notes to her chronology.

For those who wish to read the Technic Civilization stories in chronological order, or merely to have a list of the stories in a correct temporal sequence, Sandra Miesel has done readers of Anderson's works a real favor.  However, commentators like Dr. Paul Shackley have discovered inconsistencies in some of Miesel's proposed dates which contradicts what the texts says.

For example, Miesel dates the birth of Nicholas van Rijn to AD 2376 and the crucial Polesotechnic League's Council of Hiawatha to 2400.  However, as discussed by Dr. Shackley in his note "Inconsistencies II," Nicholas van Rijn was born too late to have attended that council.  The section of Chapter IX of MIRKHEIM which discussed the Council of Hiawatha ended with "But when a century had passed--".  Nicholas van Rijn could not have attended that council because he was 80 years old at the time of the Mirkheim/Baburite crisis.  He would need to have been, implausibly, well over a century in age.

I have no objection to keeping Miesel's dating of the Council of Hiawatha to 2400, but I believe dating van Rijn's birth to 2421 is more accurate.  And since the Mirkheim/Baburite war came when van Rijn was 80 years old, that means it should be dated 2501 (not in 2456, Miesel's date).  This has the advantage of not contradicting what Chapter IX of MIRKHEIM said about "But when a century had passed."

Another error in Miesel's chronology contradicting what the texts say are her dates for "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM.  She dates the events in "Lodestar" and MIRKHEIM to 2446 and 2456.  However, the Prologue to MIRKHIEIM clearly dates the events in that book to EIGHTEEN, not 10, years after "Lodestar."  My revision of her chronology dates those stories to 2483 and 2501.

The next major inconsistency in Miesel's chronology contradicting what the texts say came from her dating the foundation of the Terran Empire to the 28th century and the birth of Dominic Flandry to AD 3000.  These dates clash with what Chapter 10 of ENSIGN FLANDRY says, as the Merseian prime minister Brechdan Ironrede was going to the Imperial embassy for an official reception: "His destination was another offense, a compound of residences and offices in the garish bubble style of the Imperium four hundred years ago."  This indicates the Empire had existed for over four centuries by the time of ENSIGN FLANDRY (because it is reasonable to think schools of architecture needed some time after the Empire arose to become popular).

However, one problem with this dating is that we don't know how long the year of the planet Merseia was when compared to our Earth's year.  We don't know whether it was longer or shorter than the Terran year. Nonetheless it does indicate the Empire was older than the three centuries or so her chronology gives it by the time of ENSIGN FLANDRY.

Moreover, Miesel herself contradicts her chronology when she wrote in her "Introduction" for THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND (Gregg Press: 1977): "The Empire is its third century when it moves against the Domain in its first aggressive campaign against a civilized foe."  Another chronological indication can be found in Chapter 8 of Anderson's THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, as Ivar Frederiksen briefly summarized the history of relations between the Empire and the Domain of Ythri: "Still, it [the Domain] grew.  So did Empire, Terra's, that is, till they met and clashed.  Couple centuries ago, they fought."  Now, if the Empire had existed a little over two centuries by the time of the Ythrian War and then that conflict was at least two centuries in the past by the time of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, that can only mean it had lasted more than four centuries by then.

Therefore, I would argue for dating the birth of Dominic Flandry to AD 3100, not 3000 (the year Miesel chose).  The later date better fits the chronological evidence I collected from the texts.  I am still puzzled how Miesel could have missed, for example, such crucial indications as the Prologue of MIRKHEIM saying the Baburite war occurred 18 years after "Lodestar."

Because of Dr. Paul Shackley's zeal and devotion to accuracy, I became aware of mistakes I made in my proposed ordering of the Dominic Flandry stories beginning with "Tiger By The Tail" and ending with WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  While working on a revision of Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, I erred in too quickly accepting Miesel's listing of these stories when I should have paid attention to certain texts in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS and WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  This time I made what I believe is a more accurate listing and "dating" of these six stories.

"Tiger By The Tail" is at the head of this listing because Dominic Flandry  was not yet a knight in that story.  That honor was conferred on him by the Emperor because of how he had nullified the Scothanian threat.  And also because we see Aline Chang-Lei saying in "Honorable Enemies," while trying to cheer up an anxious Flandry: "Dominic Flandry, the singled-handed conqueror of Scothania, brought down by that overgrown buzzard?" So I placed "Honorable Enemies second after "Tiger By The Tail."

"The Game of Glory" begins with mention of how an agent  serving Merseia escaped the Terrans from a planet named Conjumar in a spaceship so badly damaged that this agent, Aa'u, was forced to hide on another frontier world of the Empire. Then we read: "Two years went by. He was sent to Betelgeuse and discovered how to lie to a telepath," referring to "Honorable Enemies," which happened before the "Game of Glory" proper.  So we arrive at this partial listing: "Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies," and "The Game of Glory."

Next comes the problem of where to most accurately list, chronologically, "A Message in Secret" and THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.  In Chapter II of PLAGUE we read: "The Betelgeuseans were ubiquitous throughout this sector of space.  Flandry had engaged passage on one of their tramp ships, as the quickest way to get from his completed assignment  on Altai to the big Imperial port at Spica VI." Which means "A Message in Secret " came immediately before THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.  Last, in Chapter I of WE CLAIM THESE STARS, we see Flandry saying to Lady Diana Vinogradoff: "The Nyanza business was a trifle wearing, y' know,"  to remind her  of yet another exploit of his on yet another exotic planet.  "I came home for a rest. And the Merseians are such damnably strenuous creatures.  It makes me tired, just to look at one, let alone spar with him." And that places "The Game of Glory " not long before WE CLAIM THESE STARS.  Summing up, we get this listing: "Tiger By The Tail," "Honorable Enemies," "A Message in Secret," THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, "The Game of Glory," and WE CLAIM THESE STARS.

 In addition, I suggested below that Josip died in 3142 rather than in 3141 (Miesel's date was 3041) because a slightly longer reign for that Emperor fitted better the background of the stories.  That is, it gives more time for the events recorded in those stories to take place without being crowded together too tightly.

If the argument I gave above is correct, then that means many, not all, of the dates given by Miesel in her chronology needs to be changed.  Mostly by proposing dates later than the ones she chose.  In the chronology given by me below, the dates I advocate are given first while Miesel's dates are given in square brackets.  For the most part I used the "Chronology of Technic Civilization" to be found in the Gregg Press edition of ENSIGN FLANDRY.  I also thought it best, for simplicity's sake, to omit many of the annalistic notes added by Sandra Miesel.  I omitted many bibliographical details for similar reasons.

In my proposed revision of Sandra Miesel's Chronology I preferred to list the stories by their first magazine or book publication dates.  To be strictly accurate I should say that Poul Anderson revised a few of these stories: "Margin of Profit," "The White King's War," "Tiger by the Tail," "Honorable Enemies," and "Warriors from Nowhere." These later versions should be considered canonical and first appeared in THE EARTHBOOK OF STORMGATE ("Margin of Profit") and in the Ace Books and Gregg Press editions of the Dominic Flandry stories ("The White King's War," GALAXY, October 1969, was incorporated in A CIRCUS OF HELLS.)

The Breakup and the Polesotechnic League

2055  "The Saturn Game," ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION (cited as ASF), February, 1981

2150  "Wings of Victory," ASF, April, 1972
24th century  "The Problem of Pain," FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, February, 1973
2400  The Council of Hiawatha
2421 [2376]  Birth of Nicholas van Rijn
2451 [2406]  Birth of David Falkayn
2461 [2416]  "Margin of Profit," ASF, September, 1956
2461 [2416]  "How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson," FUTURE QUEST, ed. Roger Elwood, Avon Books, 1974
2468 [2416]  "The Three Cornered Wheel," ASF, October, 1963
2471 [2426]  WAR OF THE WING MEN, Ace Books, 1958
2471 [2426]  "Esau," ASF, February, 1970
2472 [2427]  "Hiding Place," ASF, March, 1961
2472 [2427]  "Territory," ASF, June, 1963
2473              "A Sun Invisible," ASF, April, 1966
2476 [2427]  "The Trouble Twisters," as "Trader Team," ASF, July-August, 1965
2478 [2433]  "Day of Burning," as "Supernova," ASF, January, 1967
3478 [2433]  "The Master Key," ASF, July, 1964
2482 [2437]  SATAN'S WORLD, Doubleday, 1969
2482 [2437]  "A Little Knowledge," ASF, August 1971
2482 [2437]  "The Season of Forgiveness," BOY'S LIFE, December, 1973
2483 [2446]  "Lodestar," ASTOUNDING: THE JOHN W. CAMBPBELL MEMORIAL ANTHOLOGY, ed. by Harry Harrison, Random House, 1973
2501 [2456]  MIRKHEIM, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977
Early 26th century [late 25th century], settlement of Avalon
26th century, "Wingless on Avalon," BOY'S LIFE, July, 1973
26th century, "Rescue on Avalon," in CHILDREN OF INFINITY, ed. Roger Elwood, Franklin Watts, 1973
26th  centruy, dissolution of the Polesotechnic League

The Time of Troubles and the Terran Empire

2600-2700 [27th century]  The Time of Troubles
Late 27th century, "The Star Plunderer," PLANET STORIES (cited as PS), September, 1952
2700  Manuel Argos founds the Terran Empire, Principate phase begins
28th century, "Sargasso of Lost Starships," PS, January, 1952
29th century [30th C], Covenant of Alfzar
2925 [29th century], THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND, New American Library, 1973
3100 [3000]  Birth of Dominic Flandry

3112 Battle of Mirzan, Alarri invasion crushed by the Navy.
3119 [3019]  ENSIGN FLANDRY, Chilton, 1966
3121 [3021]  A CIRCUS OF HELLS, New American Library, 1971
3122 [3022]  Josip succeeds Georgios as Emperor
3125 [3025]  THE REBEL WORLDS, New American Library,1969
3127 [3027]  "Outpost of Empire," GALAXY, December, 1967
3128 [3028]  THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, Doubleday, 1973
3132 [3032]  "Tiger by the Tail," PS, January, 1951
3135 [3033]  "Honorable Enemies," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, May, 1951

3137 [3037]  "A Message in Secret," as MAYDAY ORBIT, Ace Books, 1961
3137 [3038]  "A  Plague of Masters," as EARTHMAN, GO HOME, Ace Books, 1961
3139 [3040] "The Game of Glory," VENTURE, March, 1958
3140 [3040]  WE CLAIM THESE STARS! (also HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE), Ace Books, 1959
3042 [3041]  Hans Molitor succeeds Josip as Emperor after brief civil war, supplants short lived Imperial relative as Emperor.
3143 [3042]  "Warriors from Nowhere," as "Ambassadors of Flesh," PS, Summer, 1954
3148 [3047]  A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, New American Library, 1975
3155  Dietrich succeeds Hans as Emperor
3157  Gerhart succeeds Dietrich as Emperor
3162 [3061]  A STONE IN HEAVEN, Ace Books, 1979
3167 [3064]  THE GAME OF EMPIRE, Baen Books, 1985
Early fourth millennium, the Empire enters its Dominate phase
Circa AD 3500, Fall of the Terran Empire, the Long Night begins.  War, piracy, anarchy, economic collapse, and isolation devastate countless worlds.

The Long Night

3600  "A Tragedy of Errors," GALAXY, February, 1968
3900  THE NIGHT FACE, Ace Books, 1978
4000  "The Sharing of Flesh," GALAXY, December, 1968
7100  "Starfog," ASF, August, 1967