Lissa and the Gargantuan, Karl, discuss a large, newly discovered, Forerunner artifact with Hebo and the Rikhan, Dzesi. (I have to reread to get the names right.)
When Hebo suggests that the artifact is still working, maybe collecting data, Lissa leaps up spilling her drink and angrily stating that he has no right to keep this a secret. Of course, the others react, Dzesi with hand on knife etc, and, of course, nature also responds:
"A cloud passed over the sun, blown from the west. A wild creature screamed." (p. 25)
Precisely at this dramatic moment, the day darkens - momentarily - and an animal screams. In Anderson's works, natural phenomena - often the wind or the thunder of an approaching storm - punctuate the characters' conversations just as surely as the commas and the full stops. Readers probably do not notice - except that I have become alerted to every nuance of Anderson's prose. And please tell me of anything that you see that I miss.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What I wondered about was why Lissa should have been angry at Hebo's apparently innocuous suggestion that the Forerunner artifact was still functioning and possibly collecting data. As stated, I saw nothing about Hebo wanting to keep anything secret.
Sean
Sean,
Hebo was trying to keep the info quiet until he could sell it to some interested party.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Got it. If I recall correctly, Hebo and his non human partner had been the first to find that Forerunner artifact, so I am not completely unsympathetic to his wish to sell the information to an interested party. Unless that artifact was shown to be too dangerous to remain in private hands.
Sean
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