In Olga's Landing

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE, is one of my favourite scenes in Poul Anderson's Technic History. Sitting on the tower of St. Barbara's, Diana sees blue sky, the small, fierce sun Patricius, two moons, the Pyramid that houses Imperial offices, sunseeker vine climbing the tower, the market square surrounding the tower, life spilling from narrow streets and surging between enclosing walls, shops and booths with multifarious wares, occasional clopperhoof-drawn wagons, muscular Imhotepan colonials, a spaceman and a marine badmouthing "'Merseian bastards,'" (p. 198) Tigeries (land Starkadians), a centauroid Donarrian, Irumclagians, Shalmuans and the first ever Wodenite on Imhotep...

That is where the narrative begins.

We are also informed that:

ice bull herds used to stampede through Olga's Landing when it was only an exploration base;

hot, savoury odours waft from foodstalls and music from taverns;

folk are mostly human but not Terran.

The scene is worthy of a Heinlein Juvenile. Technic civilization is most alive in this moment.