Re: John Grimes (A Bertram Chandler) - a little help?

Paul S Person wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2025 22:57:57 -0700, Robert Woodward
<robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
 

In article <10085kh$f7h$1@reader1.panix.com>,
jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:
>

In article <10083hn$3s9qp$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

>
I was looking at my shelves for something to read next, and I realized I
have roughly a dozen novels set in the Rim universe. A few feature Derek
Calver, set before John Grimes emerges as the main protagonist; and
almost all of my Grimes novels are set early in his career.
>
Both isfdb and wikipedia give a pretty good in-universe chronological
order, and of course it's pretty easy to figure out publication order as
well.
>
Any advice on how to go about reading this series? Is it important to
read the Calver stories first? Anything I should be aware of that can't
be deduced from isfdb?
>

As I recall, they were written out of order in an era when books were
expected to stand on their own. For the most part, each volume tells
you what you needed to know to enjoy that book. Actually, I don't
remember any that do not.
>
That said, some do reference previous events. I would not read
the Far Traveller or Star Courier before The Big Black Mark.

>
In my case, I have not read _The Big Black Mark_ (though I have heard of
it - was it inspired by Bligh's first mutiny?*), but I have read _The
Far Traveller_ and _Star Courier_.

 /Mutiny on the Bounty/ was. /Men Against the Sea/, though, it the real
winner in the trilogy. IMHO, of course.
 My favorite version is, inevitably, the MAD Movie Satire "Mutiny on
the Bouncy".
 

*IIRC, _The Anarch Lords_ was inspired by Bligh's third mutiny. Since I
haven't read all of the Grimes stories, I don't know if there is one
inspired by Bligh's second mutiny.

 The second mutiny is ... hard to find on Bing. "Bligh's second mutiny"
mostly brings up articles on the first mutiny, and the one that tells
of it is mostly about the first mutiny.

It was a part of the larger Spithead and Nore mutinies, over pay among other things, and not particularly due to Bligh.  Wikipedia has a brief article on the mutinies, though Bligh is not mentioned.
ISTR from a biography that he  was privately sympathetic on the pay issue, but of course didn't let the men know that.
William Hyde