"Until lately, Ivanhoe had had no more than a supply depot for possible distressed spacecraft. Then a scientific investigator found the adir herb in the deserts of another continent." (p. 134)
Poul Anderson could have placed the adir on a newly imagined planet but, instead, economically re-used Ivanhoe, the setting of David Falkayn's first adventure. Adir, growing only in its unique ecology, can be used to start several organic syntheses so it becomes profitable for a League company to establish a base, befriend the Ivanhoans and persuade them to harvest adir "...in exchange for trade goods." (p. 134)
These natives are of the same species as the Ivanhoans in "The Three-Cornered Wheel" but are of a different culture on a different continent so there will a different set of problems in dealing with them. Whereas Falkayn's employer, Martin Schuster, imported the Kabbalah, Thomas Overbeck's apprentice, Juan Hernandez, imports Christmas. Earth is rich in powerful traditions although we can expect other civilized planets to be likewise. In the later period of the Terran Empire, a Wodenite convert to Christianity hopes to find convergent traditions among other races. We do not know the end of his quest.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And Thomas Overbeck hoped that, as time passed, the Dahians and, by extension, their nomadic neighbors, would gain some of the capital needed for rebuilding/modernizing.
Ad astra! Sean
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