If we read Poul Anderson's Technic History in chronological order of fictional events, then, by the time we reach "The Master Key," we know that Nicholas van Rijn has initiated his first trade pioneer crew led by David Falkayn although those characters are not mentioned here whereas other employees of van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors company are. This is the last Technic History instalment in which we see van Rijn unaccompanied by the members of that first trader team and it is also the last instalment before the no less than four instalments showing increasing problems for the Polesotechnic League:
Satan's World
"A Little Knowledge"
"Lodestar"
Mirkheim
Reading history and historical fiction reminds us that we can also read sf future histories which, in some cases and to some extent, match the complexity of real history - or at least have fun trying.
No comments:
Post a Comment