Thursday 14 March 2019

What To Do With The Sibyllans

See Sibylla.

Most of them were not parties to the hoax and should not be penalized for it but they cannot be sent to another planet when so many others want to emigrate yet how can they be assimilated and earn a living on the crowded Earth?

Simic compares Sibylla to Greenland which defeated the Vikings although Eskimos and Europeans conquered it later. Anderson's heroes like van Rijn or, in this case, Simic devise solutions that satisfy everyone. The Sibyllan survivors can easily tackle the Sahara which no one else wants or is even able to think about. Returning to Earth another eighty five years, Simic finds that the Sibyllans/Saharans are making a difference.

Only two stories refer explicitly to the Directorate. In this one, we learn that there is a single "Director." However, we get a strong sense of a future history from the Solar War and the birth of Yakov Kahn before the Directorate to the exploration of Delta Eridani III, then Simic's return to Earth after another eighty five years. There were two periods of interstellar travel, first the bases, then the colonies. Human beings were in a base on Mithras for one hundred years, then in a colony on Sibylla for two hundred. Sibylla was attacked - supposedly - sixty eight years before Simic arrived there. Then he returned to Earth, then he made an eighty five year round trip to somewhere else. This is all a very summarized future history.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I thought the Director we see in "The Alien Enemy" was the minister in charge of Extraterrestrial Relations? And that other agencies or ministries had their own Directors.

I can imagine Siyllans hardened and toughened Sibyl not considering reclaiming and making fertile the Sahara not that difficult! But I wonder what exactly did they do in the Sahara?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
The Minister refers to the Director on p. 82.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Aha, so the minister was subordinate to the Director, who was the head of state. Only goes to show it's high time I reread "The Alien Enemy." I thought a GROUP of Directors were ruling Earth.

Sean