Monday, August 18, 2008

Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization in Seven Easy Lessons

First there was one. Then there was three. Now comes the news that Baen Books has negotiated the rights to the entire Technic Civilization series by Poul Anderson. Seen volumes of crunchy hard science fiction goodness! For the first time since, well ever, we're going to see the entire tale, from beginning to end (with even a story that never made it between book covers!) from one publisher.

All hail Toni Weisskopf (Baen's publisher)! All hail Hank Davis (the Baen editor overseeing the project)!

Feast your peepers on what's in store...

Volume I: The Van Rijn Method
“Introduction: Planets and Profits” by Hank Davis
“The Saturn Game” (novella)
“Wings of Victory” (short story)
“The Problem of Pain” (short story)
“Margin of Profit” (novella)
“How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson” (short story)
“The Three-Cornered Wheel” (novella)
“A Sun Invisible”(novella )
“The Season of Forgiveness” (short story)
The Man Who Counts (novel, a.k.a. War of the Wing-Men)
“Esau” (short story)
“Hiding Place” (novella)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume II: David Falkayn: Star Trader
“Introduction (subtitle to come) by Hank Davis
“Territory” (novella)
“The Trouble Twisters” (novella)
“Day of Burning” (novella)
“The Master Key” (novella)
Satan’s World (novel)
“A Little Knowledge” (short story)
“Lodestar” (novella)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume III: Rise of the Terran Empire
Mirkheim (novel, last appearance of van Rijn)
“Wingless” (short story)
“Rescue on Avalon” (short story)
“The Star Plunderer” (novella)
“Sargasso of Lost Starships” (novella)
The People of the Wind (novel)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume IV: (Young Flandry)
Ensign Flandry (novel)
A Circus of Hells (novel)
The Rebel Worlds (novel)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume V (Captain Flandry: Defender of the Terran Empire)
“Outpost of Empire” (a non-Flandry novella)
The Day of Their Return (a non-Flandry novel)
“Tiger by the Tail” (a Flandry novelet)
“Honorable Enemies” (a Flandry novelet)
“The Game of Glory” (a Flandry novelet)
“A Message in Secret” (a Flandry novella — published in paperback by Ace as Mayday Orbit)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume VI (Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra)
“The Plague of Masters” (a Flandry novel — published in paperback by Ace as Earthman, Go Home!)
“Hunters of the Sky Cave” (a Flandry novel — published in Amazing Stories as A Handful of Stars and in paperback by Ace as We Claim These Stars!)
“Warriors from Nowhere” (a Flandry novelet)
A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (a Flandry novel)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

Volume VII (Flandry’s Legacy)
A Stone in Heaven (a Flandry novel)
The Game of Empire (a novel with Flandry’s last appearance, but mainly involving his daughter)
“A Tragedy of Errors” (a novella set during the Long Night)
“The Night Face” (a novella, though published twice by Ace as a novel, the first time under the title Let the Earthmen Beware, expanded from the shorter version, “A Twelvemonth and a Day” in Fantastic Universe)
“The Sharing of Flesh (a novelet)
“Starfog” (a novella)
“Chronology of Technic Civilization” by Sandra Miesel

NOTE: The novels and stories which appeared in the following previously-published story collections have been redistributed in the above seven volumes:

Trader to the Stars (Doubleday, later a Berkley paperback)
The Trouble Twisters (Doubleday, later a Berkley paperback)
The Earth Book of Stormgate (Putnam, later a Berkley paperback)
Flandry of Terra (Chilton, later an Ace paperback)
Agent of the Terran Empire (Chilton, later an Ace paperback)
The Long Night (Tor)
Flandry (Baen)

What a series! What a collection! If you've never encountered this series before, you are in for a treat!

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