"[Targovi] went out the door. A breeze lulled cool, smelling of leaves and sea, ruffling his fur; he wore nothing but his breechcloth, belt and knife. Lawns dreamed empty beneath a sky where clouds drifted, tinged argent by Icarus and bronze by the sun-ring."
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER NINETEEN, p. 405.
Coolness, contrasting smells and colors. Targovi's fur and near nakedness remind us that he is not human. Although it is night, the sun-ring and the moon, Icarus:
"...gave ample light for humans to see by."
-op. cit., pp. 405-406.
We must always remember that Daedalus is another planet and that its environment is fundamentally different from Earth's.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Again, I'm trying to picture what a night on Daedalus must be like. Should I imagine it looking like sunrise or sunset on Terra when just a bit of the Sun is still showing?
Sean
Sean,
But with the sun spreading all around the sky and the land or sea not sinking below a horizon but fading continuously into the distance.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'll try to imagine that, difficult as it is!
Sean
It's a little like visualizing the inside of a hollow sphere -- like Pellucidar, or a Dyson sphere.
Or ERB's Moon, which was hollow and inhabited inside.
The planet must appear to curve upwards, then disappear in sheer distance with the sun-ring not as a boundary but as a luminous infinity.
Or something.
Gentlemen,
Many thanks for these efforts to elucidate what it must look like to be on a planet without a horizon. Given the fascination with which Diana Crowfeather contemplated it, I'm sure it's a wonder to see, despite the difficulties I'm having trying to visualize it!
Sean
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