Tuesday 12 March 2013

Sorting Series

Maurai and Kith, Poul Anderson collection, three "Maurai" stories, two "Kith" stories, sea people and star people, not successive periods but alternative futures, two (very short) "future histories." Third Kith story, set between the first two, written later. Maurai And Kith (five stories) could split into Maurai (three stories) and Kith (three stories)?

The Maurai stories are followed by Orion Shall Rise and There Will Be Time. The first and third written Kith stories are incorporated into Starfarers, to which the remaining story could be appended. Thus, four volumes where there was one.

The High Crusade acquired a sequel, "Quest," which could be appended to the novel. Tau Zero acquired a prequel, "Pride," which adds a lot and could be included as Prologue. "Death And The Knight" follows The Shield Of Time, the Time Patrol novel, so should be appended to it, not to Time Patrol, the Time Patrol omnibus collection.

There are two (or three?) stories about a character called "Wing Alar" that could be collected together. I will have to reread to confirm but I think that "A Bicycle Built For Brew" and "Captive of the Centaurianess," and maybe some other early stories, share background details? There are probably other connections that I do not know about.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

One thing I noticed about "Death and the Knight" is that Poul Anderson apparently takes a far less negative view of the Knights Templar in that story than was the case in ROGUE SWORD. My guess is that PA eventually decided the accusations leveled against the Templars were exaggerated due to the malice of their enemies.

Sean

Sean