The plot advances. Strands converge. Thus:
at the end of 5, we learn that Aleka works for Lilisaire;
in 6, the third "Mother of the Moon" historical flashback, Edmond Beynac and Dagny Ebbeson dine in the "L'Etoile de Diane" restaurant on Luna - another step towards "Dagny Beynac";
in 7, back in the narrative present, Ian Kenmuir returns to Luna where he has been summoned by Lilisaire.
The story is going somewhere but is taking its time but meanwhile we learn many details about a future society. Beynac did not become a farmer because technology has made farmers mere administrators and did not become a professor of prehistory like his father because Fireball had opened "'...the space frontier.'" (p. 86) Anderson's novels parallel popular culture (see here) but to a higher purpose.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think Edmond Beynac was a French Basque? And I can see why farmers in this future have become more administrators than actual hands on tillers of the land. Advanced technology has made agriculture more capital than labor intensive. Which probably made it too boring for Edmond!
Sean
Sean,
He knows an inn in Les Eyzies, his father is a professor in Bordeaux and they had a summer cottage in the upper Dordogne.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
If I recall correctly, Poul Anderson mentioned a French professor of pre-history his essay "The Discovery of the Past" (who was also one of his friends). So I strongly suspect he had that gentleman in mind when he made Edmond's father another professor of pre-history.
Sean
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