By a grandfather clause (p. 467), the Survivors, unlike other immortals, are allowed to have children, although they rarely find eligible partners. I still find it instructive to google every unfamiliar word or phrase, like "grandfather clause," in Anderson's texts.
A colleague once told me that she was not a qualified teacher but was qualified to teach. Verbally, that is a contradiction. The explanation was that, until a certain date, any University graduate was qualified to teach. From that date, an additional qualification called the Postgraduate Certificate of Education/PGCE, or "PiG," became necessary but what I now recognize as a "grandfather clause" exempted those who had graduated from a University before that date.
"...an infinity of stars." (p. 476) If I were to compile a Poul Anderson Encyclopedia, which I am not (the blog is for intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment only), I would list all of the author's "...of stars" phrases.
It is possible to go into something called Pioneer Land which, however, is not what it sounds like. You input to the network and to everyone linked with you and come out with memories indistinguishable from those generated by lived experiences. In the physical world, Wanderer travels from Jalisco to a supposed wilderness area that is merely "...a control reserve, a standard of comparison for Ecological Service..." (p. 471)
The sixth Survivor, Svoboda, mountaineers in another familiar sf setting, on the Moon, which is where the "...infinity of stars..." is seen. I am jumping back and forth but the text is so datum-dense that it is difficult not to do this.
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