The Old Quarter

Having apparently disposed of the Ancients in The Day Of Their Return, Poul Anderson cleverly brings them back as the subject-matter of Fr. Axor's research in The Game of Empire. CHAPTER ONE of this latter novel is another of my favourite passages in Anderson's Technic History. Remember that, when reading the opening paragraph, we know nothing as yet. A feminine viewpoint character sits on:

"...the tower of St. Barbara."

-Poul Anderson, The Game of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 195.

The sky is deep blue, the sun Patricius small but fierce. The planet, called Imhotep, has been artificially heated by its colonists. Mt. Horn is twelve kilometres high. Visible from the tower is the city centre including:

the Pyramid which houses Imperial offices and technology;

the mostly new buildings of the Institute campus;

industries;

shops;

hotels;

apartments.

We infer (correctly) that the reference to Imperial offices entails that Imhotep is in the Terran Empire. The second paragraph also reveals that the viewpoint character is named Diana and that the tower on which she sits is in the old quarter as opposed to the horizon-blocking Pyramid, Institute etc. This old quarter has:

"...a brawling, polyglot, multiracial population, much of it transient, drifting in and out of the tides of space." (ibid.)

We have reached the bottom of the first page of the text and have begun to feel at home on an Andersonian planet. We do not yet know Diana's surname, parentage or occupation or that she is about to meet Axor on his quest for the Ancients.