Hollister has been put in charge of men from a city that had resisted the Venusian Federation. This makes his next task easier: to organize them to fight their way back to Earth so that the UN can then send an expedition to overthrow the Federation. So will the remaining sections of the story comprise just action-adventure fiction?
In these four opening stories of the Psychotechnic History:
"Marius"
"Un-Man"
"The Sensitive Man"
"The Big Rain"
- important issues are debated between characters with antithetical philosophies, then the side that the narrative encourages us to agree with wins a purely physical conflict. However, Anderson shows us that history is more complicated than that.
In the Technic History:
the Polesotechnic League becomes cartelized;
Dominic Flandry winds up working for a usurper;
the Empire that he defends eventually falls.
In the Psychotechnic History, psychotechnicians switch from good guys in these opening installments to bad guys in The Snows Of Ganymede.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
To paraphrase a writer whose name escapes me, "things fall apart, the center fails to hold." That is what I believe eventually happens to all merely human societies and their institutions.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am bound for bed at 1:00 AM, but have just added a post in response to this comment.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I saw that, but have not read it, yet. Thanks, that was flattering of you!
Ad astra! Sean
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