Poul Anderson's
The Day Of Their Return, like some of his other works, effectively conveys the sense of living in troubled times with civil unrest and insurrection. Anyone could write that there were riots but Anderson tells us specific reasons. On occupied Aeneas, rallies and demonstrations demanded resumption of regular interstellar mail. When this was conceded, the next demand was no examination of mail, to be ensured by a citizen's committee. This was refused...
But the razing of the McCormac monument and the disarming of the Landfolk were ordered by the Sector Governor, not by the planetary High Commissioner. Desai is a consistently decent guy - and he carefully calls the rebel leader's fiancee a law-abiding citizen, not a subject of His Majesty!
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
Just a comment on the last sentence abve: Commissioer Desai STARTED to say "law abiding subject of His Majesty," but immediately changed it to merely "citizen." In peaceful, less inflamed times, there would have been no objection to the first formulation, of course.
And it's only fair to point out that the sector governor who succeeded the callous and conscienceless Aaron Snelund was regarded by Desai himself as a decent and conscientious official. The chief flaw in Governor Muratoi lay in being a little too heavy handed.
Sean
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