Rouvaratz is speaking and is in mid-sentence when:
"Then they were struck." (p. 95)
The unexpected happens to astronauts far out in the Solar System. This is a kind of moment that we recognize:
"...and then -
"The sky exploded."
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 709-794 AT pp. 779-780.
"Suddenly, warningless, the rock gave way under Tersten's boots."
-Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), XIX, p. 476.
"Hanno clung.
"Something snatched him.
"He was down in a roaring black."
-ibid., p. 587.
"Abruptly the hull shuddered and bucked."
-Poul Anderson, "Pride" IN Anderson, Space Folk (New York, 1989), pp. 1-28 AT p. 22.
"The thing erupted."
-Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Man-Kzin Wars IX (Riverdale, NY, 2002), pp. 1-95 AT p. 53.
And so on.
The cosmic setting:
"...the Milky Way rimmed [the spaceboat's] visual universe."
-"In The Shadow," p. 98.
"His radio receiver hummed with the beam from the Shikari, rustled with spatial interference, the voice of nebulae and galaxies." (p. 99)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Because of these lengthy discussions of the Directorate series, I've started rereading those four stories again. Julian May will just have to wait, I fear!
Not sure I have MAN-KZIN WARS IX, I'll have to check. I do have the issue of ANALOG first publishing "Pele." I was esp. impressed by the beginning of story, focusing on the Kzin and their strange ways and customs.
Sean
Post a Comment