Dan Coffin lives in the Rustumite lowlands which are usually cloud-covered. Visiting the plateau of High America, he sees the night sky:
"Stars crowded the dark, sparks of frozen fire which melted into the Milky Way; tonight the great torrent gleamed like sea-glow." (p. 136)
He also sees the Hercules Mountains, the frozen Emperor River, the two moons and three sister planets which are copper, silver and amber.
The place names are poignant for the reader because we have read them in previous stories but will not read them again (except by rereading) since this is the last Rustum story.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
This is petty of me, but the correct title of this story is "To Promote The General Welfare," not "For The General Welfare." I too have sometimes not QUITE correctly cited the names of stories.
And I rather wish Poul Anderson had written one or two more stories set on Rustum.
Sean
Sean,
A tetralogy about the life of a new immigrant to Rustum;
a tetralogy about life back on Earth;
tetralogies set on other colony planets -
- but Poul Anderson would have to live forever to write all this.
Although Rustum is well described, I would still prefer to live on Avalon or Dennitza.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with all your suggestions here! But, PA would have to live almost forever to have written everything we wished he might have! So, aside from any publishable fragments in the papers left after his death, we should be grateful for what we do have.
I admit I too would have preferred living on planets like Aeneas, Hermes, Avalon, or Dennitza, if only because of the lower gravity.
Sean
Post a Comment