"Where's Freeman van Rijn?"

Poul Anderson, The Man Who Counts IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 337-515.

Big build-up for a big guy:

Chapter I is about Diomedeans who have learned that a strange object with three four-limbed flightless land forms scurrying about on it is floating in their ocean.

II begins with one of those land forms, called Eric Wace, who thinks:

"Damn the [Polesotechnic League], and damn Nicholas van Rijn, and most particularly damn Eric Wace for being fool enough to work for the Company!" (p. 345)

On p. 346, Wace speaks to another flightless land form, Lady Sandra Tamarin.

On p. 347, he asks her:

"'Where's Freeman van Rijn?'" (p. 347)

Lady Sandra does a good job of introducing our title character:

"'Making some last-minute work on the raft. That one is a handy man with the tools, not? But then, he was once a common space-hand.'" (p. 347)

Shortly after that, Wace reflects further:

"He considered what luck always appeared to befall that pot-bellied old goat van Rijn.
"It wasn't right!" (ibid.)

Thus, before seeing van Rijn, in this volume, we read a fair description and two responses.