"The Three-Cornered Wheel."
The Trouble Twisters really does provide a mini- early biography of David Falkayn. We are used to the idea that Falkayn had to seek his fortune because he was a younger son of a Hermetian baron but why did he not enroll in the ducal militechnic academy on Hermes, thus following essentially the same career as the later Dominic Flandry? David did attend the academy but was expelled because of:
"...a prank which had been traced to him by the merest chance..." (p. 212)
- so his father (dead when Falkayn returns home later in the series) decided that he should leave Hermes. That "merest chance" had big implications for the later course of Technic History. This little nugget of information has been waiting all this time for me to reread "The Three-Cornered wheel" and find it. If I ever plumb the depths of Poul Anderson's texts, I'll let you know.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think as well that Falkayn was temperamentally unsuitable for the strictures, structures, and forms necessary for a successful military career. So it made sense for David to become a Polesotechnic League apprentice. Hermes was probably too peaceful, quiet, and well organized for a restless youth like him!
Ad astra! Sean
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