Wednesday 17 July 2024

The Pivotal Role Of SATAN'S WORLD

OK. Reverting to the The Technic Civilization Saga reading order of Poul Anderson's Technic History, we reach Satan's World in the second half of Saga, Volume II. By now, we have read fifteen instalments of this future history series:

three pre-Polesotechnic League stories;

six instalments, including one novel, about Nicholas van Rijn;

one story about Adzel as a student on Earth long before he had joined van Rijn's first trade pioneer crew/trader team led by David Falkayn;

one story about Falkayn as an apprentice;

a second story about Falkayn, now working for van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors Company;

two stories about the trader team, the first cameoing van Rijn as he explains the new trade pioneer crew idea to Falkayn;

a sequel to the first Falkayn story but featuring a different group of League merchants.

In other words, already a comprehensive series so far. Satan's World seems at first to be a first trader team novel. In Chapters I-V, Adzel and Chee Lan wait in the Hotel Universe while Falkayn investigates Serendipity, Inc. However, matters become so grave that Adzel and Chee Lan must urgently contact van Rijn. Satan's World is the first of three instalments, two of them novels, that are equally about van Rijn and the trader team. Together with one remaining story about other League merchants, they complete the first major section of the Technic History.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

It would have been nice if Anderson had written a story focusing on a different trader team.

Or a story showing us van Rijn during his last long journey of exploration.

Or a story set in the Empire in the centuries between THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND and ENSIGN FLANDRY.

Or a story featuring Flandry in his old age, set in his nineties.

There are so many gaps and unanswered questions in the Technic series!

And I've suggested both A CIRCUS OF HELLS and THE REBEL WORLDS could have used a little expansion.

Ad astra! Sean