Again we find some standard cliche sf background terminology like "3V" apparently indicating a 3D equivalent of TV. As in some other works by Poul Anderson, a "computer" and an "infotrieve" are different instruments as also, in this case, is a "vocascribe." The "phone" reads as if it is unchanged from the time of writing although, checking back to the previous chapter, we remind ourselves that these phones have screens. These could all have been a single instrument, of course.
Human beings are used to closing themselves off from nature by living and working inside buildings whereas an Aleriona has to have an entire jungle growing inside his apartment! I will not here go into any details about the physical description of the Aleriona on p. 27 except to mention that he is another of those aliens that just sound like an odd-looking man, in this case a furred and somewhat elongated one. In a visual medium, the bodily presence of the Aleriona would be in our faces whenever he comes on-stage whereas, for some readers, certainly including me, what he is supposed to look like becomes very vague as soon as we read past the initial description. He is, in any case, two-legged, two-armed, two-eyed and male. Not many surprises there.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But I didn't find the physical description of what the Aleriona looked like that implausible. I argue that parallel evolution on many planets, terrestroid or not, ends with many species having some similarities to humans. So I would expect some to have one head, two arms, two legs, etc.
Some cliches are likely to sometimes be more true than not!
Ad astra!
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