Fulminata reviewed David Falkayn Star Trader by Poul Anderson
Review of 'David Falkayn Star Trader' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
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 embodiment of the capitalist ideal. He often does the right thing, but because it's also the most profitable thing, not the most moral one, and while he gets older, he does not really change.
A son of aristocracy, Falkayn begins his career as a follower of Van Rijn's philosophies. As time goes on though, he sees that capitalism does not succeed at bettering everyone. Entire species of intelligent beings are falling through the cracks due to not having anything worth trading to the merchant princes. Eventually he deviates from Van Rijn's form of capitalism to follow his own …
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 embodiment of the capitalist ideal. He often does the right thing, but because it's also the most profitable thing, not the most moral one, and while he gets older, he does not really change.
A son of aristocracy, Falkayn begins his career as a follower of Van Rijn's philosophies. As time goes on though, he sees that capitalism does not succeed at bettering everyone. Entire species of intelligent beings are falling through the cracks due to not having anything worth trading to the merchant princes. Eventually he deviates from Van Rijn's form of capitalism to follow his own moral compass.
While none but the last story deal with these issues in any but a passing way, it's interesting none the less. It's also interesting to note that Van Rijn's adventures were largely written before those of Falkayn's, and it makes me wonder how much the author's political and economic views may have changed between the stories.
This growth of the Falkayn character only really comes out when reading the collected stories. It's not really present in the individual stories themselves, so it's understandable why Van Rijn has been at least as popular a character for many (including myself in the past), as his idiosyncrasies are generally quite entertaining, and his lack of development as a character is not apparent when reading individual stories.