David Falkayn: Star Trader

A repackaged collection of the middle third of Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn stories; most of these feature David Falkayn, as you'd expect. I must say I liked old Nicky far better when I was younger. He's interesting, but not really enough to build a series around.

These tales are pure space opera, and neither van Rijn nor Falkayn are particularly sympathetic characters. They're also a platform for Anderson to build worlds, something no science fiction author has done as well; he takes a set of premises about the planet, and builds an appropriate environment and interesting characters--not aliens, characters--to populate it. That part is wonderful.

There's one excellent story in here: Satan's Planet, the book's only novel, is terrific, show more though a little unwieldy. A significant subplot is built around what we now call data mining.

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...The next volume, Rise of the Terran Empire, will introduce the next phase in Technic History. Dominic Flandry, the main character in most of the stories from the Terran Empire period will not show up until part four however. I think this change of scene will be good for the readers not familiar with Anderson's work. The stories in this volume are starting to feel like repetitions and at times van Rijn's East India Company mentality annoys me tremendously. Anderson has shown he is not blind for the risks of an organisation like the Polesotechnic League however, it will be interesting to see what it's fate will be and what follows this era of uncut capitalism. This books has its ups and downs but Anderson's future history intrigues me show more none the less....

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