Beginning Orion Shall Rise

How much can we know about a book before starting to read it? Poul Anderson's Orion Shall Rise has 468 pages of text. The blurb on the back of my copy says that "...four opposing pockets of civilization vie for control of the planet..." Which four? Europe, North America, the Maurai? Where else?

The opening quotation reads:

"When you stand on the peak of time it is time to perish

-Robinson Jeffers, 'The Broken Balance'"

 

I have encountered some difficulty in googling the text of this poem. Does Jeffers mean that there is no peak of time and, if you think there is, then you're finished?

 

We are in for a long haul which suits me fine.