A New World

As if entrepreneur Nicholas van Rijn, or maybe diplomat Chunderban Desai, had been involved, the conflict between the Cloud People and the Tulat is resolved in the perceived best interests of both parties. The Tulat are freed from exploitation and from any further invasions for another fifty years. Aryuk even dies happy.

The Cloud People have been promised:

"'A new world.' [Red Wolf] did not understand, but he believed, and made his people believe." (The Shield Of Time, p. 250)

We understand. The American continents, new to Siberian immigrants long before they became new to Europeans - and Wanda has already met a Conquistador. Anderson often gives us a happy ending not only for the characters that we have come to know but also, with his historical perspective, for their descendants. And people in later periods will seek the new worlds of other planets.