"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.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Good, with ordinary care a good quality hard cover should last for decades.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that Van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors company trades in luxury products, often sourced from primitive planets.
That would make it a marginal operation -- enough to may VR rich, but not large compared to industrial enterprises.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, but not entirely so. Old Nick also traded in ideas, introducing to many planets ideas on how better to do things, with some modest tech help for start ups. His profit would come from getting a percentage of the resulting profits, as we see in "Territory,"
Over time such income streams from many worlds would become enormous.
Ad astra! Sean
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