When we located "The Master Key" in Poul Anderson's Technic History
here, we referred directly or indirectly to fifteen of the sixteen Polesotechnic League instalments. Thus, "The Master Key" is preceded by five instalments about van Rijn and by another five about Falkayn and/or Adzel and is succeeded by four about problems in the League. That totals fifteen. The one remaining instalment that is not about van Rijn, Falkayn, Adzel or League problems is "The Season of Forgiveness" about another group of League merchants celebrating Christmas on the planet Ivanhoe which had been introduced in the first Falkayn story. Thus, everything connects and the connections are almost as complicated as IRL (in real life).
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Agreed, what you wrote here. The only real regret I have about the stories set in the era of the Polesotechnic League is that Anderson never wrote any Young Nick stories.
Ad astra! Sean
I did think that the decay of the League was over-rapid. Changes of that type usually take generations.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
You convinced me MIRKHEIM should have been set at least 20 years later, even if that meant Old Nick would have been 100 instead of 80 years old. I think Andersson did that because, even with Technic antiesenescence, a van Rijn aged 80 could be more plausibly shown as being as active as we see him in MIRKHEIM than at age 100.
Ad astra! Sean
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