The Rustumite lowlands have ceretheres, terasaurs and giant versions of spearfowl and other species that are familiar on the colonized plateau called High America. There are place names like Lake Moondance, Ahriman and Ironwood. (Scroll down.)
Dan and Eva discuss a group of friends that are missing. Eva speaks but breaks off as Dan stiffens. She has said something that gives him a clue as to where the friends might have gone - in search of a herd of terasaurs. Moments of realization punctuate Anderson's narrative like his Pathetic Fallacies and descriptive passages appealing to at least three of the senses.
I can guarantee to find something to post about just by rereading a page or two of an Anderson text.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But I don't think anyone has yet commented on the use of PERSIAN words or names for places or locations on Rustum (which itself is Persian). Such as "Ardashir" or the "Ahriman" you cited here. These names plainly don't come from after the time Iran was conquered by the Muslim Arabs. They have a "Sassanian" feel to them. Maybe Rustum was discovered or explored by members of Joshua Coffin's crew who included Zoroastrians?
Sean
Sean,
Indeed the names must have come from somewhere.
The Russians were the first to observe and photograph the hidden side of the Moon so they bestowed names like "Moscow Sea" etc.
CS Lewis imagined marvelous sights on the far side of the Moon.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And the Far Side of the Moon would be a good location for an astronomical observatory, away from the glare of the Sun and without the obscuring atmosphere of Earth.
Sean
Sean,
I think that the Far Side gets sunlight, though?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I checked, and you are right! BOTH sides of the Moon experience two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of night. All the same I think the Far Side would be a better location for an observatory. At least that was the conclusion I drew from one of Dagny Beynac's sons, an astronomer, having an observatory on the Far Side in the HARVEST OF STARS books.
Sean
Post a Comment