The Van Rijn Method

The Buck Starts Here!

Think there’s an unbridgeable gulf between human and alien thought?  Not so!  There’s a common tongue, all right -- and Nicholas Van Rijn speaks it fluently:  TRADE.  For behind the buffoonish blarney and bawdy bonhomie of the Falstaffian Van Rijn is a man who gets things done.  A born wheeler-dealer who usually leaves both sides better off in the bargain. (While pocketing a hefty cut of the profits himself, of course!)

With The Man Who Counts and a passel of other tales included, this is the first of three volumes set to contain the complete cycle of “Polesotechnic League” books and stories by transcendently-gifted science fiction master (how does seven Hugos and three Nebula Awards strike you?) Poul Anderson – and starring Nicholas Van Rijn, his most famous character of all!

Cover Art by Dave Seeley

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, September 2008

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001.
The Van Rijn method / by Poul Anderson.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5569-8 (hc)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5569-2 (hc)
1. Life on other planets--Fiction. 2. Human-alien
encounters--Fiction. 3. Interplanetary voyages--Fiction.
I. Title.

PS3551.N378V36 2008
813'.54--dc22

2008020726

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5569-8
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5569-2

"Introduction" copyright © by Hank Davis; "A Chronology of Technic Civilization" by Sandra Miesel, copyright 2008 by Sandra Miesel.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

Acknowledgments

"The Saturn Game," first published in Analog, February, 1981. Copyright 1981 by Davis Publications, Inc.

Introduction to "Wings of Victory," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

"Wings of Victory," first published in Analog, April 1972. Copyright 1972 by Conde' Nast Publications, Inc.

Introduction to "The Problem of Pain," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

"The Problem of Pain," first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1972; copyright 1973 by Mercury Press, Inc.

Introduction to "Margin of Profit," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

"Margin of Profit," first published in a different form in Astounding Science Fiction, September, 1956. Copyright 1956 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Revised version copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson.

Introduction to "How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

"How to be Ethnic in One Easy Lesson," first published as "How to be Ethnic" in Future Quest, ed. Roger Elwood, Avon, 1974. Copyright 1974 by Roger Elwood.

Introduction to "The Three-Cornered Wheel," first published in The Trouble Twisters, Doubleday, 1966. Copyright 1966 by Poul Anderson.

"The Three-Cornered Wheel," first published in Analog, October, 1963. Copyright 1963 by Conde' Nast Publications, Inc.

Introduction to "A Sun Invisible," first published in The Trouble Twisters, Doubleday, 1966. Copyright 1966 by Poul Anderson.

"A Sun Invisible," first published in Analog, April, 1966. Copyright 1966 by Conde' Nast Publications, Inc.

Introduction to The Man Who Counts, first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

The Man Who Counts, first published in Astounding Science Fiction, February, March and April 1958; copyright 1958 by Street and Smith Publications, Inc. A shorter version was published by Ace Books as War of the Wing-Men, copyright 1958 by Ace Books.

Afterword to The Man Who Counts, first published in The Man Who Counts, Ace, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson.

Introduction to "Esau," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978; copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson

"Esau," first published as "Birthright" in Analog, February, 1970. Copyright 1970 by Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

Introduction to "Hiding Place," first published in Trader to the Stars, Doubleday, 1966. Copyright 1964 by Poul Anderson.

"Hiding Place," first published in Analog, March, 1961. Copyright 1961 by Conde' Nast Publications, Inc.

"A Chronology of Technic Civilization" by Sandra Miesel, copyright 2008 by Sandra Miesel.