A Night At An Inn

Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976), 3.

(I thought that a picture of the current Prince Charles might provide some variety.)

So far, we have managed to treat this novel by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson more or less as serious speculative fiction despite the absurdities of a Hoka character and an impossible means of transport.

How might an interstellar civilization help a pre-industrial society without overwhelming it?

"...the League's gift to a combustible community, a fire station, with horse-drawn wagons and hand-operated water pumps." (p. 29)

"A chimney conducted away most smoke, another innovation from the stars." (p. 30)

There will probably be further examples.

Meanwhile, our hero and his companions stay in yet another Andersonian inn:

wainscoting;
rough rafters;
taproom;
sconced candles;
leather armchairs;
bench and tables;
a thick stew;
carved wooden flagons;
abundant drink;
leaping flames;
moving shadows;
fishers and artisans crowding benches or squatting on the frond-strewn clay floor;
the Hoka holding forth from the end of the table.

We recognize a kinship across the cosmoses.