"A baron's son from Hermes..."
- but:
"...a younger son, and one who had gotten himself expelled from the ducal militechnic academy."
-Poul Anderson, "The Three-Cornered Wheel" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp.199-261 AT II, p. 212.
So he goes to Earth and is apprenticed in the Polesotechnic League where, in Volume II, he has risen to Master Merchant and has become the leader of the first trade pioneer crew. Then, in Volume III, he learns that his older brother, Michael, has died in battle:
"'You realize what this means... I'm the new head of the family and president of the domain. That's where my first duty lies.'"
-Mirkheim, XII, p. 180.
Meanwhile, incidentally, he has also defied his employer, van Rijn, but also married van Rijn's granddaughter and become a father. Later still, he is acting CEO of SSL and Founder of the colony on Avalon. We are looking at a completely different David Falkayn.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! I'm reminded of how we read somewhere that Flandry racked up a record number of demerits when he was a young cadet at the Imperial Naval Academy. He probably just BARELY escaped expulsion.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Falkayn and Flandry are two coming of age sub-series in the Technic History.
Paul.
And neither of them had conventional careers. They're too individualistic and imaginative to be routiners.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, albeit I find Flandry more interesting than Falkayn. ENSIGN FLANDRY, A CIRCUS OF HELLS, and THE REBEL WORLDS amply shows us how individualistic and imaginative Flandry was.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the downside is that Flandry probably simply wouldn't be very good at a conventional combat command.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Maybe, maybe not. Brief tho his command of 'HMS Asienneuve' was, I thought Flandry a very conscientious captain. I have no reason to doubt he would not have been as equally competent if, perhaps accidentally, Flandry later commanded another ship.
Ad astra! Sean
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