The Polesotechnic League is split three ways: two cartels, the Home Companies and the Seven in Space, and the independents, of which the most powerful is the Solar Spice & Liquors Company founded and single-handedly run by Nicholas van Rijn who is supported by talented individuals like David Falkayn. Loyalties are personal, backed up by oaths of fealty, and Falkayn breaks his oath to van Rijn only once to rectify or counteract a massive imbalance in Technic civilization. Species like Ikranankans and Ivanhoans that we have seen in individual short stories return to the readers' attention when Falkayn secretly founds a company that will serve their interests as against those of the monopolists.
Van Rijn and Falkayn are so competent and gifted that they manage to solve problems not only for their organization but also for their entire civilization and this seems implausible. However, no one can prevent the decline of the League and the Commonwealth and the Troubles ahead. Falkayn's lasting legacy is Avalon which still exists in the late Imperial period although in the Domain of Ythri, not in the Empire.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And we get an amusing glimpse at how Old Nick ran SP & L in SATAN'S WORLD. With his non-human secretary sharply telling him that if van Rijn did not want to work at running the company he could sell it for more money than he could spend in ten lifetimes.
For all his buster and mangled Anglic Old Nick was a very able and shrewd man who chose his subordinates for their abilities alone.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
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