"...the supernova nebula, thirty parsecs off, was only an irregular blur, a few minutes across, among the constellations opposite, as if a bit of the Milky Way had drifted free."
-"The Pirate," p. 148.
Poul Anderson writes as if he had been there. Now mankind needs to go there.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
My thought, remembering as well "Day of Burning," was to wonder if thirty parsecs might have been far enough away from Good Luck for the supernova to NOT have wiped out the native intelligent race of the latter planet. After all, the Valenderay supernova threatening Merseia in "Day" was a lot closer. But, not being astrophysicist, I'm almost certainly speaking from ignorance!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I think that the nebula was 30 parsecs from its observers in that passage, not from Good Luck.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Meaning the supernova was a lot closer to Good Luck than I had thought? Yes, that would make it a lot more dangerous to people living there!
I think "The Pirate" is one of Anderson's better written Psychotechnic stories. As it should be, written at a time when its author had so much more experience as a writer by the time he wrote it. It also happened to be the last Psychotechnic story to be written, after which Anderson set aside that "future history."
Ad astra! Sean
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