("Trading In Trouble"? A book about British traitors was entitled Their Trade Is Treason. A hostile review was entitled "His Trade is Tripe.")
Chee Lan approaches a city wall:
"Crouched at the foot, she looked up a sheer dark cliff; a cloud scudded through the purple sky above and made it seem toppling on her. Pungent tarry smells of vegetation filled her nose. The wind blew cold. From the opposite side she heard the cataract roar." (p. 185)
Sensory overload: she sees a dark height reaching up to a white cloud in a purple sky, smells pungency, feels cold and hears a roar. Another tactile sensation is added when the rough wall scratches her as she climbs.
There is no doubt in my mind that, in this passage at least, Poul Anderson deliberately and systematically works his way through four senses before advancing the narrative. The reader must be made fully aware of the Ikranankan environment, not just of what happens there.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And the only sense we don't see described here is that of taste. But Anderson mentions that in other stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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