Sometimes we think that we are doing something for the last time. Poul Anderson described "Lodestar" (1973) as:
"...this ending of a saga..."
-Poul Anderson, AFTERWORD IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 681-682 AT p. 682
- but then went on to write Mirkheim, published in 1977.
Thus, we read again about David Falkayn, Coya Conyon/Falkayn, Nicholas van Rijn, Adzel and Chee Lan and in a full-length novel. There are others but these are the five who had appeared, it was thought for the last time, in "Lodestar."
Nothing is more appealing than the idea that someone who was dead is alive or that someone whom we thought that we had seen for the last time we had not really seen for the last time. We learn that, between marrying Falkayn and starting a family, Coya joined the trader team although we do not read any stories of the team with her as a member. Although the Technic History is an exceptionally long future history series, it was not possible for Anderson to include every detail of its protagonists' lives.
Mirkheim is a much weightier and more appropriate ending for the Polesotechnic League saga and it is followed by - the next installment of the Technic History.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, MIRKHEIM provides a much more satisfying ending for the stories Anderson wrote about the Polesotechnic League than "Lodestar" alone could be or do.
Sean
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