David Falkayn
Star Trader

Like the previous volume, I've read many of these stories before, but not in chronological order. Overall, I find the stories in this volume more interesting than those in the previous one, largely because I find the character of Falkayn more interesting than that of Van Rijn. Van Rijn is nearly an......more

This is the second book in the new compilation of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories, and it's going to be hard to top. Apart from the titular Falkayn and his alien trader-pioneer partners, Chee Lan and Adzel the dragon, it features Nicholas Van Rijn himself again in most of the stories, a......more

...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 w......more

I'm torn on this one, much as I was torn on the first volume. The Technic Civilization stories straddle the line between Space Opera and Hard Science Fiction, and that is sometimes to its benefit and other times to its detriment. There are thrilling heroics and moments of bland explorations of theor......more

Evergreen The first SF I read (at 8) was by Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. As soon as I moved beyond juveniles, they were joined by Poul Anderson. I will never tire of (re)reading the first two, but the titles of theirs on my shelves are far outnumbered by those of the third. Anderson does not ju......more