I’ve been rereading Poul Anderson’s future history, beginning at the beginning. This series is sometimes call the Technic Future history. The name comes from the Polesotechnic League, which is the first interstellar government, although it’s more of a league of intergalactic traders and merchants. Baen has collected all the stories in order of internal chronology.  The first volume is called The Van Rijn Method.

This series has to main subseries. The first concerns the trader Nicholas Van Rijn (rhymes with “line”) and his protege David Falkayn. The second subseries deals with Dominic Flandry, who is an agent trying to stave off the fall of the Galactic Empire, even though he knows it will be ultimately futile. Continue reading →