However, I feel that I am being kept in the dark about some information internal to the Emberverse narrative. What news did the British bring about Nantucket and what was the significance of the passenger pigeon in Chapter Three, pp. 52-53? I do not think that I have missed any of the text but we seem to be waiting a long time. However, we have all the time in the world(s). We are reading the seventh volume since the whole show got on the road, having already read an entire Nantucket Trilogy and an entire Bearkiller Trilogy. At least six more volumes stretch ahead of us. Anderson did not write any such lengthy linear sequence of novels although his various series did expand and proliferate.
We knew that we did not know what was going down with Nantucket so we should not be surprised to be surprised.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've had similar experiences with the works of Poul Anderson. For example, it was from reading "Delenda Est" that I first knew of philosophers like Whitehead and Mumford. And it was from my correspondence with Anderson that I first learned about Eric Voegelin, and came to read his ISRAEL AND REVELATION.
Sean
Re: Passenger pigeon
I haven't read the Emberverse novels, but I have read the Nantucket series.
In our history the passenger pigeon used to be abundant, but went extinct about 1900. In "Island in the Sea of Time" Martha is startled to see a passenger pigeon a month or two after "The Event".
Presumably in the Emberverse series a flock of passenger pigeons gets moved into the "Changed" earth with the Nantucket of 1250 BC.
Kaor, Jim!
I don't claim to understand how things like this might happen, but the Nantucket of Stirling's 1998 which was sent back to 1250 BC was replaced in the 1998 of the Change with the Nantucket of 1250 BC. I suppose it's easier to go with the flow of the story than trying to make sense of such massive temporal displacements!
Ad astra! Sea
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