(i) "The Master Key" is the sixth and last Technic History instalment to feature Nicholas van Rijn unaccompanied by any of his regular supporting cast.
(ii) By this time, van Rijn has initiated his first trade pioneer crew, led by David Falkayn from "The Three-Cornered Wheel" and "A Sun Invisible" and also including Adzel from "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," and we have seen the crew in action in "The Trouble Twisters" and "Day of Burning" but now we see what van Rijn is doing meanwhile back on Earth.
(iii) This is the second of three occasions on which we are shown the inside of van Rijn's penthouse on the Winged Cross in Chicago Integrate. Van Rijn solves a problem on an extra-solar planet while lounging in his penthouse surrounded by subordinates and dinner guests.
(iv) The story introduces several new one-off characters and imparts a strong sense of the power and prestige of the Polesotechnic League and its members as well as the vast volumes of space that their activities encompass.
(v) The story immediately precedes four instalments outlining growing and eventually fatal problems within the League:
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But I did appreciate the "unpleasant events" seen on Cain. Because in "The Master Key" Anderson shows us two different intelligent races can be so different from each other that the only way the Cainites thought they could treat humans was thru violence.
Ad astra! Sean
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