Sunday 28 December 2014

Labyrinthine Links

The human colony planet Ansa has been forcibly annexed by the Terran Empire in "Sargasso of Lost Starships," Planet Stories, 1952;

 Nicholas van Rijn likes Ansan onion soup;

Per Stenvik drinks Ansan vermouth;

Tabitha Falkayn hopes to visit Imperial planets, including Ansa;

Ensign Helen Kittredge may have had leave "...on Ansa, which is like an idyll of Terra." (Flandry's Legacy, p. 278);

Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization lists "Sargasso of Lost Starships" but did not mention that this story involves the forcible annexation of Ansa until it was revised for Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Vol I, 2009;

"Sargasso..." is collected for the first time in Vol III, 2011.

This summary of references to Ansa was prompted by rereading "The Master Key," in which Per drinks his vermouth and recounts his experiences on the planet Cain. The recent post, "Bargaining On This Basement," (see here) gives a link to "Cain" and the link displays the results of a search for "Cain." The results include two very recent posts, including "Bargaining..." itself - and now probably also this one -, but also the two that I was looking for from 2012 and 2013. However, these posts do not disclose as much as I had expected about the Cainites so I will continue to reread the story. (See here.)

In "Hiding Place" and "Territory," van Rijn himself is out in space. In "Margin of Profit," he is on Earth but receives a report from one of his captains and, after conferring with colleagues, accompanies the captain into space. In "Esau," he is on Earth and receives a report from a factor. The narrative conventionally switches from conversation to the factor's adventures on Suleiman, then back to conversation. "The Master Key" remains a conversation with five speakers while Per and his ensign recount their adventures on Cain. Thus, the van Rijn stories differ considerably in structure.

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