"Neurosensitivity in any degree was not a gift to be despised."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter V, p. 35.
"Neurosensitivity," sensitivity to neural radiation, sounds right as a scientific term for "telepathy."
When Trevelyan meets Ilaloa, he reflects that she is:
"...the Lorinyan girl whom Nicki had mentioned." (Chapter VIII, p. 63)
However, Nicki had not mentioned any Lorinyan girl when she met Trevelyan at the end of Chapter VII. Maybe this had been in one of the passages that were cut out before the original publication of the novel?
Ilaloa tells Trevelyan that she can "flow" or "tell" the thoughts of animals but not of human beings and he replies that this is because, although she can sense emissions, each human being has a characteristic pattern. Ilaloa agrees. The peculiar talent of Aycharaych in the Technic History is precisely that he can read those individual patterns.
However, Ilaloa had known without being told that the Peregrine was going to the Great Cross. Thus, she has been able to glean some information. The Nomads and Trevelyan are investigating the possibility of a hostile, secretive civilization in the Great Cross. They need to be alert and suspicious.
2 comments:
That book got butchered in preparation, which was fairly common for SF in the old days; Poul once said to me "we were alone among mingent canines".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, I recall how PA commented in the introductions he wrote for some of his earlier novels how these mingent canines mauled and savaged his books. THE PEREGRINE seems to have been more mutilated than others like THE LONG WAY HOME.
Sean
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