"The Master Key" is the fourth of seven Technic History instalments to be collected in this volume. By the time Poul Anderson's readers reach this story:
Nicholas van Rijn has last been seen off Earth in "Territory" (the first story in this volume);
he has founded his first trade pioneer crew which has been seen in action in "The Trouble Twisters" and "Day of Burning" (the second and third stories);
readers have become familiar with the Polesotechnic League mainly although not entirely through van Rijn's organization.
In "The Master Key," Anderson spreads the net more widely, introducing other League merchants:
the narrator;
the narrator's friend;
the friend's son;
the son's ensign -
- before returning us to the son's and ensign's employer, van Rijn, who remains sprawled deep in a lounger until the concluding page when he shambles bearlike to the viewer wall. We feel the importance and power of everyone present.
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