The Mighty Sagittarius And The Gulf Of Centaurs

"Where the mighty Sagittarius flows into the Gulf of Centaurs, Avalon's second city - the only one besides Gray which rated the name - had risen as riverport, seaport, spaceport, industrial center, and mart. Thus Centauri was predominantly a human town, akin to many in the Empire, thronged, bustling, noisy, cheerfully corrupt, occasionally dangerous. When he went there, Arinnian most of the time had to be Christopher Holm, in behavior as well as name."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT VI, p. 499.

This is the opening paragraph of its chapter. For me, it is the moment when Anderson's Technic History comes most alive as a sequence of fictional places and periods. A major river on an extrasolar planet is named after a constellation. The Sagittarius and the Gulf of Centaurs are mentioned as if we knew them. Bustling cities are among Anderson's favorite environments. This city is outside the Terran Empire although akin to Imperial cities because it is mostly human. The adverb, "cheerfully," counterbalances and offsets the adjective, "corrupt."

The opening sentence lists three kinds of transport and two other fundamental human activities. Arinnian is a human being who prefers his Ythrian identity but must take care in a predominantly human town. The chapter proceeds to describe Livewell Street which I have discussed before and will again. We walk along the street beside the oily canal with Arinnian and Hrill, the latter a direct descendant of the Founder.

Falkayn founded Avalon and Flandry will defend the Empire but, for now, we are between the lives of both.