Embedded In A History

Not only does Emil Dalmady come from Altai, work for van Rijn and hoodwink Baburites but also the spaceship that regularly calls at Suleiman for bluejack is Cynthian. We really are embedded in a History.

For Dalmady, Yvonne Vaillancourt's:

"...hair smelled like remembered steppe grass warmed by an orange sun, rippling under the rings of Altai." (The Van Rijn Method, p. 525)

Yes, if we have read the series out of order, then we remember being on Altai with Flandry. If not, then we might remember Dalmady when we finally do join Flandry on Altai.

Yvonne and her colleagues have observed abundant ceremony but no animism among Suleimanites so what kind of psychology do they have? Of course, their data is inadequate, derived from only three or four cultures...

Suddenly, we are hit by a point that Anderson keeps making. Every inhabited planet is a world with an ecology, a population and a history. Imagine generalizing about Terrestrials after observing Devon and Cornwall in England...