A Thematic Trilogy

James Blish's After Such Knowledge (ASK) is a thematic, not a linear, trilogy. My summary here suggests a spurious linearity. To reformulate that summary:

I. One demon (maybe) speaks.
IIa. Many demons attack Heaven.
IIb. The chief demon becomes God.
III. He (maybe) creates.

Thus, I have generated a dramatic sequence that is not present in the texts. First, the two "maybe"s are significant. Secondly, Volume I is about Roger Bacon, not about his (hypothetical) demon. Thirdly, Satan's assumption of divinity in IIb has no bearing, either direct or even indirect, on his (again hypothetical) creativity in III.

Volume II, written in two parts, was written last. But, in any case and whatever the order of writing, the theological revolution in II and the theological problem in III are unrelated narratives.

The theme of the trilogy is the question whether the desire for secular knowledge is evil. One question can be addressed in otherwise inconsistent and even mutually contradictory narratives. Indeed, before IIb was written, the world had ended in the twentieth century in II, yet still existed in the twenty first century in III - but, nevertheless, ASK remained a thematic unity, three related works, not one tripartite work.