Tuesday 30 December 2014

"A Glory Of Suns"

"Heaven was darkness filled with a glory of suns. Viewscreens framed the spilling silver of the Milky Way, ruby spark of Antares, curling edge of a nebula limned by the glare of an enmeshed star. Brightest in vision stood Borthu's, yellow as minted gold."
-Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 160.

Recent posts have summarized:

the problem in "Margin of Profit";
suggested solutions;
van Rijn's solution.

However, this does not exhaust the story as the above quotation demonstrates. Anderson often describes space and stars as seen from a spaceship, mentioning familiar details like nebulae and the Milky Way. However, the descriptions are always fresh. In this passage, the phrase, "...a glory of suns...," replaces "...a wilderness of stars..." which we have encountered several times before. See here and here.

I will continue rereading "Margin of Profit" and will then revisit "Hiding Place" which also has Nick van Rijn in action in space instead of receiving reports from subordinates in the Winged Cross.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I noticed, during clear nights in Hawaii, the beauty and splendor of the stars. A beauty which justifies such evocative terms as "a wilderness of stars" or "a glory of suns." Something I find too easy to overlook in the frequently cloudy skies of New England. Or obscured by city lights.

Sean