Title character, Nicholas van Rijn, features in only four of the eleven works collected in this volume but makes a big impact.
"A Sun Invisible" is the seventh of the eleven collected items. Elements of the early Technic History are introduced at a gradual and leisurely pace. Before starting "A Sun Invisible," we have already been introduced to:
the Jerusalem Catholic Church
Ythrians
the Ythrian Old and New Faiths
the planets Ythri, Woden, Cynthia, Hermes, Aeneas, Gray/Avalon, Ivanhoe and Gorzun
the Polesotechnic League
the Solar Commonwealth
San Francisco Integrate
James Ching
Adzel
Nicholas van Rijn
David Falkayn
Martin Schuster
and others
- and Hloch's introductions to four of the stories have given us a preview of a later period of the Technic History.
We do not yet know which of these elements will continue to be important later although most will. At the beginning of "A Sun Invisible," David Falkayn reappears and shows promise:
"Falkayn groped with half-forgotten bits of Yiddish that he had sometimes heard from Martin Schuster, during his apprenticeship." (p. 269)
"'I am the Polesotechnic League's factor on Garstang's...' he said." (ibid.)
"When he got his journeyman's papers, he was one of the youngest humans ever to do so. In large part, that was thanks to his role in the trouble on Ivanhoe. To set a similar record for a Master Merchant's certificate, he needed another exploit or two." (pp. 270-271)
"Maybe old Nick van Rijn himself would hear about this David Falkayn, who was so obviously being wasted in that dismal little outpost on Garstang's." (p. 271)
Why should van Rijn notice Falkayn?
"'You're with Solar Spice & Liquors, right?'" (p. 276)
Falkayn is now working for van Rijn's company.
Volume II of The Technic Civilization Saga is called David Falkayn: Star Trader and show's Falkayn's increasing involvement with van Rijn.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And, traditionally, younger sons of aristocratic families, as was the case with Falkayn, generally had to seek their own fortune, when most of the family estate would pass to the eldest son and heir. That was the pattern with the British aristocracy and gentry. So, many younger sons would enter the military, the Church, law, or commerce, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
That was an ancient tradition in Britain. As early as the 17th century, many prominent merchant families were "armigerous" -- that is, descended from younger sons of landed-gentry status.
If successful, they would buy land in their turn.
Many of the "First Families of Virginia" were founded by younger-son branches of British gentry; this was encouraged by Governor Berkeley (the Berkeleys are an ancient landed family, in fact prominent even before 1066) in the 17th century. He sponsored a number of Cavalier exiles after the 1640's, for instance, and got them extensive grants of land.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have heard of those First Families of Virginia, and of how some, like the Washingtons, descended from younger sons of the British gentry.
If George Washington had had sons of his own, I think some at the US Constitutional Convention would have been glad to make the presidency hereditary in his family.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: though I doubt Washington would have stood for it. He had a truly unusual sense of public duty.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, I'm going by what I recalled some of the delegates at the Convention would have liked if Washington had not been childless.
Ad astra! Sean
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