The towers and spires of the city, Dirzh, stretch to the horizon in every direction.
On the eastern horizon are mines and a colorful desert.
Between buildings, elevated trafficways.
Overhead, aircars.
When Elva looks down from a balcony, dust, smoke, fumes and vapors hide the bottoms of the towers.
Underground, there are workers of the lowest category and armed gangs.
Even a space fleet commander lives in three cramped rooms in a tower apartment with a single servant.
Five billion Chertkoians, numbers constantly growing, inhabit a bleak planet.
Interstellar conquest is necessary - obviously!
9 comments:
Which begs the question of why their numbers are constantly growing -- they're an urbanized, industrial planet.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Your comment here jarred my memories of what I've read elsewhere: because, after reaching a certain plateau, industrialized, urbanized societies tend to have populations that stabilize, even to decline?
Ad astra! Sean
I would have posted more last night but unfortunately I got drawn into a political wrangle on email and preferred just to switch off my computer for the rest of the evening.
We seem to have identified two errors by the Chertkoians: letting their population grow and not leaving a task force on Vaynamo.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, except I now wonder if Anderson made an error in not keeping population grown seems to have a tendency to slow and stabilize in industrialied, urbanized societies after a certain point. This could be rationalized by suggesting not all such societies may follow that pattern.
Ad astra! Sean
I mean, in my comment immediately above: "...Anderson made an error in not keeping IN MIND population growth..."
Sean
Also, an open land frontier and low densities tend to encourage fertility.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And if we get another "open frontier," via space, that might stimulate fertility. And I think that would be good for the human race.
Ad astra! Sean
Note the similarities between the Cherktoian defeat in space in this book with the bad guys' defeat in AFTER DOOMSDAY.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I did not think of that, alas! But I don't think Tarkamat and his Kandemirians were that bad! I thought the Chertkoians, or their leaders, far worse.
Ad astra! Sean
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