Future History Background Details

Because Ansa is a planet in a story in Poul Anderson's Technic History, we appreciate later references in that History to Ansan vermouth, onion soup etc. See here. Also,"livewell" is an Avalonian flower imported to Earth. 

Early in Jerry Pournelle's The Mercenary (London, 1977), there are references to:

"...badges of the dark rich bronze alloys found on Kendicott, berets made from some reptile that swam in Tanith's seas."

-I, p. 30.

However, we have not been shown either Kendicott or Sparta yet. (At least, I do not think that we have. The publication history of this series is complicated. I have not read it all and there is much of what I have read that I do not remember.)

When Falkenberg and his men arrive on the planet Hadley, something large and black rises from the water but immediately sinks back. A local seems not to notice it whereas Falkenberg's Marines shout excitedly. Readers need to be shown more of native life.

What does Pournelle do well? He shows us a large number of plausible individuals in believable economic and political predicaments and conveys a strong sense of important events occurring both on- and off-stage. I am committed to rereading The Mercenary at least until the plot development which has been the subject of recent combox discussion. Whether I stay with the text after that depends on whether it is able to hold my attention.

Let's democratize the CoDominium instead of building an old-style Empire... Too late! That is what is going to happen.