The Night Face, I.
I have read this novel more than once but had completely forgotten the following passage:
"The Company's operations took men and valuable ships ever deeper into this galactic sector, places where humans had seldom or never been even at the height of the empire." (p. 551)
This is no longer the Long Night. At least, it is no longer that early stage of the Long Night when there was almost no interstellar travel and most of that was piracy. Perhaps we should make some distinctions.
(i) To some Imperials, anything and everything after the Fall of the Empire would be the "Long Night" and they would not think beyond that.
(ii) There was "that early stage," as described above.
(iii) There is the period when this "Company," or, later, the Allied Planets are exploring, recontacting and re-civilizing. This period is transitional between the earliest post-Imperial stage and an interstellar civilization comparable to, or even greater than, the fallen Empire.
(iv) There is a much later stage when human civilizations with support organizations like the Commonalty have spread through several spiral arms of the galaxy. Such a period can no longer be called any kind of "Night."
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Using magnifying readers, I was able tor read that blurb.
Yes, THE NIGHT FACE, whatever the debates about its chronological position, does seem to be at or near the end of the Long Night era.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
As regards your Point "ii," I think some Imperials would be so stricken with grief by the though of Terra falling that they could not really care about future civilizations--because it was not THEIR civilizations.
Ad astra! Sean
Oops! I meant Point "i". Drat!
Sean
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