I have two questions from reading “Recluce Tales.” First, “Heritage” reminds me that there seems to be a contradiction between Hamor being an empire in Lorn’s time and a hodgepodge of duchies when Cyador falls. I’ve always admired how your story lines are internally consistent across widely separated arcs, but this seems hard to reconcile. How do you explain this seeming inconsistency? Second, you write that your editor has pleaded with you over the years to not write the story of Cyador’s founding. Why not? Thanks.

How about the idea that, as in the old and new kingdoms of ancient Egypt, there was an empire in one time, a disintegration, and a rise of a new and stronger empire later?

David Hartwell was my editor at Tor for more than thirty years, and he felt strongly about the matter. Even after his death several years ago, I respect his judgment. The next four Recluce books, however, will deal with the period beginning roughly eighty years after the rationalist landing on the world of Recluce. That’s likely to be the closest I’ll get to the founding — except for the short story entitled “The Vice-Marshal’s Trial” in Recluce Tales