When Sandra Tamarin-Asmundsen challenges Nicholas van Rijn about the "buccaneer companies" of the Polesotechnic League:
"...he made no demand, but only looked off into the Milky Way and said, rough-toned, 'Is not your problem...'" (XX, p. 279)
I quote this passage only because it is yet another reference to the Milky Way. However, this time, it is not really about the Milky Way. The galaxy is mentioned only because Sandra and van Rijn are on board a spaceship and van Rijn is able to look out into space. However, he is not looking at the Milky Way. People look into the distance when they are thinking about something else. Van Rijn is just beginning to address the consequences of a fatal split in the Polesotechnic League...
Several centuries later, Philippe Rochefort, on Avalon, asks:
"'What incurable romantic named this planet?'"
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT XI, p. 570 -
- and Tabitha Falkayn replies that it was David Falkayn's granddaughter. Before leaving Earth, David and Coya had had at least two children, Juanita and Nicholas. The latter has a son, Nathaniel, on Avalon. So was it Juanita's daughter that named Avalon?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It could have been a granddaughter of David Falkayn by Juanita, yes. Or another child by David's son Nicholas. Or even the daughter of a third child of David and Coya.
Ad astra! Sean
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