Thus, "Margin of Profit," The Man Who Counts and "Territory" precede "The Master Key" chronologically. "Margin..." introduces van Rijn, and The Man Who Counts develops his character at greater, novelistic, length, then the van Rijn series proper kicks off with "Esau" and the three stories collected in Trader To The Stars, including "Territory" and "The Master Key."
In the previous post on "The Master Key," I neglected the detail that the narrator's friend, Harry Stenvik, speaks with a "...soft Norse accent..." (p. 276) These cumulative details, although usually instantly forgotten, build up a solid picture of the characters and their environment. We remember that what we read was substantial even though we forget most of it.
Often we are told which colony planet a new character hails from. Sometimes, though not always, we know the planet from elsewhere in the Technic History. Harry's son's ensign is from Nuevo Mexico (not known) beyond Arcturus. In other stories:
Emil Dalmady is from Altai (known);
the narrator of "The Problem of Pain" meets Peter Berg from Aeneas (known) on Lucifer (not known) where they discuss Gray/Avalon (known);
Noah Arkwright quotes a prospector on Quetzalcoatl (not known);
Urwain the Wide-Faring mines on Despair (not known);
the pretender Magnusson's wife is from Nyanza (known);
two very different characters come from Ramanujan.
I will remember more items for this list when walking down the stairs.
No comments:
Post a Comment