Poul Anderson seamlessly blends astrophysics and economics. See
here. A technologically powerful civilization industrializes first a rogue planet orbiting close to a giant star, then a supermetals-encrusted planetary remnant of a supernova. Economic competition necessitates the fiction that the newly marketed industrially valuable supermetals have been synthesized by a new process, not mined in a secret location. Economics generates politics and war. When the supermetals source has been identified and located, the nearby imperial power of Babur seizes the planet militarily while claiming ownership legally. A commercial spy reveals secret arming and dishonest manipulation of Babur by the Seven in Space cartel while it is public knowledge that the rival Home Companies cartel is corporately merged with the Solar Commonwealth government. The Polesotechnic League is no longer either a mutual-benefit association or a guardian of fair competition.
We are familiar with these kinds of activities on a Terrestrial scale. However, Anderson uniquely combines stellar processes with power conflicts on a galactic scale.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with you on how you said Anderson skillfully scales up political intrigues from a merely planetary to an interstellar setting. And the threat posed to any genuine system of free enterprise economics from interference by the state or a few companies trying to stifle competition via cartelization is very real!
Sean
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