Wednesday, 29 April 2015

The Boat Of A Million Years, Chapter XVIII

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), Chapter XVIII, "Judgment Day," pp. 363-454.

This chapter, set in 1975, effectively "the present," is considerably longer than any of its predecessors, 92 pages, thus just short of novel length by my 100+ pages rule of thumb. It is divided into 16 numbered sections.

I. Wanderer finds Tu Shan and Asagao in Tibet. They will join Hanno and him in the US. Now, five immortals are accounted for and four are banding together.

2. Aliyat, currently Rosa Donau, is working with Flora who had been Laurace Macandal and is now Corinne, daughter of Laurace. They see an ad for Longevity Studies that we know will have been placed by Hanno and must decide whether and how to respond. Potentially at least, six immortals will come together.

3. Hanno, posing as Mr Levine with power of attorney for the elderly Mr Tomek, wrangles with a tax inspector. I have barely started to read this lengthy section but must now turn in because, after a reasonably active day, I have been to the cinema to see the latest Avengers film.

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Hmmm, does the "Longevity Studies" mentioned in Section 2 of "Judgement Day" have anything to do with the Rufus Institute Hanno founded under another name? That institute was founded to do genuine research into why Hanno and the other immortals were what they are and whether it could be replicated.

Section 3, where Hanno posed as Mr. Levine acting as the agent of Mr. Tomek, interested me because it shows how Hanno became, for a while dangerously careless. Hanno's Tomek persona was attracting attention due to his suspiciouly long life. Hanno should have phased out his Tomek persona years ago and reappeared under a new name.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I will have to read further to answer that question.
Paul.