This novel has twenty three chapters. Dominic Flandry appears only in Chapters Twelve, Eighteen and Twenty Three. The concluding chapter contains passages appropriate to endings:
"Imhotep spun toward northern autumn. Dwarfed Patricius burned mellower in skies gone pale." (p. 448)
"Dead leaves scrittled underfoot." (p. 448)
"Westward the city ended at woods turned scarlet, russet, amber." (p. 449)
"...Axor rested serene along the floor, listening with one bony ear while contemplating the sunset." (p. 450)
Diana Crowfeather is about to begin her career. Nevertheless, we know that this chapter will be our last sight of Dominic Flandry and the Terran Empire. Turning the page, we begin to read a short story set centuries later during the Long Night...
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I had reason recently to quote from Chapter VII of WE CLAIM THESE STARS the passage where Flandry used "dead leaves" as a metaphor for the decline of Technic Civilization. And I would like to again stress that Flandry was not content to merely play with a few bright autumnal leaves--he also ACTED to help hold off and delay, for a time, the fall of the Empire.
Sean
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