There is a welcome flashback from the surface of Iapetus to Scobie's apartment in the Chronos where we encounter another two peripheral characters:
Delia Ames/not involved in the game
George Harding/N'kuma the Lionslayer
Someone might make a list of all the minor and supporting characters in the Technic History but I am not going to do it. But these few opening instalments are rich in such characters from the off-stage narrator of "Wings of Victory" to Jim Ching's girl friend's father in "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson." Anyone who begins to read the series with these first few stories has no idea as yet that they are going to encounter the major continuing characters, Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn and Dominic Flandry. And, when van Rijn does appear, it is a while before he returns and begins to dominate the Polesotechnic League period. Anyone who begins to read from the beginning will have a lot of surprises. The series is worth reading all the way to the end, then rereading from the beginning.
2 comments:
Indeed. Anderson's corpus, from the earliest stories to the final, is really an impressive body of work - I mean, it's not Tolkien (or Faulkner), but within SF, it's arguably the most detailed - and satisfying - future history.
Kaor, Paul and Dave!
Paul: I agree, plus Anderson's Technic series is worth rereading at any point that catches your fancy.
Dave: I've tried reading Faulkner (or Austen) a time or two, but neither of them appealed to me.
Ad astra! Sean
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