-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 69.
Of course "the story which follows," "Margin of Profit," is the best introduction to Nicholas van Rijn! It was the first van Rijn story but had not been included in Trader To The Stars.
Hloch tells his Avalonian readers that, to understand their Founder, David Falkayn, they must understand the Polesotechnic League and that van Rijn is a good source of information about the League. Also significantly, Falkayn became van Rijn's protege.
Hloch's introductions increase our knowledge of all the works that we have not read. Apart from The Sky Book Of Stormgate, there are many Nicholas van Rijn stories, some of which would count as fiction even within the Technic History.
Thus, other authors could write new van Rijn without having to keep them consistent with the Technic History. However, I am not a fan of this idea.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
That's an interesting thought, that other writers could create "semi-fictional" or "fictional" stories about Old Nick without needing to keep them consistent with the genuine Technic tales. We even get a glimpse of that in Chapter VI of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, where we see Dominic Flandry posing as a story teller: "...for he spoke not of the Silver Bird or Polesotechnarch van Rijn or any ancient themes known everywhere by heart." Here we see that on Unan Besar folk tales about Nicholas van Rijn which were probably mostly fictional were ancient and well known.
But, like you, I'm not a fan of this idea! Except I would not be surprised if some fans have written fanfics about Old Nick.
Ad astra! Sean
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