Sunday 14 April 2024

Building A Future History Series

In "Trader Team"/"The Trouble Twisters," Nicholas van Rijn, Master Merchant Polesotechnic League, founder, owner and director of Solar Spice & Liquors, forms his first trade pioneer crew which consists of:

David Falkayn from Hermes, Master Merchant;

Adzel from Woden, planetologist;

Chee Lan from Cynthia, xenobiologist.

Van Rijn had appeared in five previous instalments. In one of those he had been stranded on Diomedes in the company of Sandra Tamarin, future Grand Duchess of Hermes. 

Falkayn had appeared in two previous instalments and in the second of those had become an employee of SSL.

Adzel had appeared in one previous instalment which also referred to Cynthia.

"Wings of Victory," which introduced the Ythrians, also referred to Hermes, Woden and Cynthia.

After "The Trouble Twisters":

one instalment features the trader team on Merseia;

one features van Rijn back on Earth;

three instalments equally feature van Rijn and the trader team and the third of these recounts the beginning of the end of the Polesotechnic League;

one features Falkayn's grandson on the human-Ythrian colony planet, Avalon, which had been explored by Ythrians and human beings in an earlier instalment, "The Problem of Pain."

We have referred to fifteen of the forty three instalments of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization and have by no means summarized all of the relevant interconnections and cross-references. 

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

One important lacuna we both regret is how we have no Young Nick stories, showing us something about the youth/origins of Nicholas van Rijn as he was beginning his rise to fantastic wealth and fame/infamy.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Note that one of the Technic stories mentions that aliens often appear to humans (and humans to aliens) as caricatures and rather one-dimensional.

That's because they "overlap" in comprehensibility but sometimes in rather narrow ways -- all that the other species can "see" of them is a restricted slice.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I remember coming across that in some of the Technic stories, from both humans and non-humans.

"The Season of Forgiveness" shows one human character, Thomas Overbeck, as aware of that "restricted slice" of comprehensibility and erring in focusing too much on that narrow range.

Ad astra! Sean