Rich And Dense

Poul Anderson's Technic History is the richest and densest American future history series. By the end of The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I (of VII), The Van Rijn Method, Nicholas van Rijn has become a well-established series character although he has appeared in only four of the eleven instalments collected in that volume. One man is big (!); history is bigger. Van Rijn operates in a context that involves other characters, other intelligent species, an interstellar economic system and continual historical changes. By the end of Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader (seven instalments), everything is the same yet not the same. The writing is on the wall or, in Ythrian terminology, the shadow of God the Hunter is across van Rijn's way of life. By the end of Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire (six instalments), everyone that we knew is long dead and everything else has changed.