The Van Rijn Show

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, the Nicholas van Rijn series is followed by a trader team series. However, the latter is almost entirely subsumed in a continuing van Rijn series. The first trader team story, "The Trouble Twisters," contains a flashback in which van Rijn explains his trade pioneer crew idea to the team leader, David Falkayn. The second trader team story, "Day of Burning," unusually contains no van Rijn. However, the remaining three works about the team are equally about van Rijn.

Also set in this period according to Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, is one last van Rijn story, "The Master Key." Van Rijn stories divide into those in which van Rijn is out in space and those in which he receives an employee's report back on Earth - and one in which both happen. Here, he is on Earth and the narration is complicated. Two earlier Technic History stories had featured first person narrators who were not the main protagonists. In "The Master Key," there are:

the narrator;
the narrator's friend;
the friend's son;
the son's ensign;
the son's and ensign's employer, van Rijn.

The son and the ensign recount their experience on a problem planet, Cain, to the other three who discuss the problem until van Rijn solves it. He discusses Cainite psychology and pronounces on human nature, a fitting conclusion both to this story and to the van Rijn series.

The narrator refers to three other planets previously "conquered" by van Rijn, thus alluding to three of the five previous installments of the van Rijn series. Van Rijn himself refers to the planet Tametha which will become problematic in the later trader team/van Rijn story, "Lodestar." Thus, the stories function as a "future history," cross-referring and providing background for each other.

Latter Days?

In Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization, "Esau" (1970), featuring Nicholas van Rijn, is placed just before "Hiding Place" (1961), also featuring van Rijn. In "Hiding Place," van Rijn is out in space whereas in "Esau" he is back on Earth receiving an employee's report so I would have guessed that "Esau" was set later in van Rijn's career.

When "Hiding Place" was collected in Trader to the Stars in 1966, a newly written fictitious Introduction commented:

" 'The world's great age begins anew...' " (1)

and:

"We do not know where we are going. Nor do most of us care. For us it is enough that we are on our way." (2)

Thus, this story heralds a new age.

When "Esau" was collected in The Earth Book of Stormgate in 1978, a newly written fictitious Introduction commented that the philosophy and practice of the Polesotechnic League

"...already...were becoming somewhat archaic, if not obsolete." (3)

Thus, this story occurs later in the History?

(1) Anderson, Poul, The Van Rijn Method, compiled by Hank Davis, Riverdale, NY, 2009, p. 555.
(2) ibid., p. 556.
(3) ibid., p. 517.

Inconsistencies II

See Inconsistencies.

Inconsistencies are either within a series or between a series and its attempted chronologisation. Nicholas van Rijn says he was born too late to attend the Council of Hiawatha. (1) The passage summarising the Council ends:

"But when a century had passed -" (2)

This implies that van Rijn discussed the Council a century after it. The Chronology of Technic Civilization tells us that:

van Rijn was born in 2376;
the Council met in 2400;
the crisis that caused van Rijn to discuss the Council occurred in 2456. (3)

Thus again (see here) the text of a future history implies a longer period of time than the accompanying chronology.

(1) Poul Anderson, Mirkheim, London, 1978, p. 103.
(2) ibid., p. 107.
(3) Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven, New York, 1979, pp. 252-253