Vance Hall

So far, The Van Rijn Method has presented "The Saturn Game" followed by the first four items in the Earth Book. Next come the first two installments in the career of David Falkayn, originally collected in The Trouble Twisters. Falkayn is an apprentice, then a journeyman.

The first Falkayn story, "The Three-Cornered Wheel," is introduced by someone called Vance Hall who claims to be commenting on the philosophy of Noah Arkwright. Hall summarizes some technological history:

uranium fission disproved the idea that it was impossible to release energy from atoms;

lasers disproved the idea that energy projectors/"ray guns" were impractical;

artificial positive and negative gravity fields disproved the idea that spacefarers must always be subject to acceleration pressure;

the quantum hyperjump disproved Einstein's light speed limit.

The apparent continuity from fission and lasers to gravity control and hyperjump makes this sequence seem very plausible.