"Concealed by an overhanging cliff, the ship stood halfway up a mountain, with an overlook down rugged kilometers to a horizon-gleam which betokened sea. Clouds towered in amethyst heaven, washed by faint pink where lightning did not flicker in blue-black caverns. Crags, boulders, waterfalls reared above talus slopes and murky scraps. Thin grasslike growth, gray thornbushes, twisted low trees grew about; they became more abundant as sight descended toward misty valleys, until at last they made forest. Wings cruised on high, maybe upbearing brains that thought, maybe simple beasts of prey. Faint through the hull sounded a yowl of wind."
-A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, VI, p. 421.
This novel not only introduces Dennitza and informs us of conditions on Chereion but also increases our knowledge of Diomedes. We notice recurrent themes:
grasslike growth;
brains that thought;
the omnipresent wind.
Action will resume shortly but Anderson always takes time to realize an extraterrestrial environment first.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I fear not all readers will appreciate such leisurely depictions of background details of the kind given us by Anderson (or Tolkien, for that matter!). I've seen complaints by impatient readers that this kind of careful "painting" of backgrounds slows down the action. And grumbles by some that Tolkien's fondness for including poetry in many places in his major works also slows down the action. I disagree and would argue to such readers that it is precisely such detailing of backgrounds and insertions of poetry which helps to enrich the stories of such writers.
Ad astra! Sean
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