In his Technic History, Poul Anderson shows us that human beings have lived for many generations on the colony planets, Hermes, Avalon and Dennitza. In this second of his three Man-Kzin Wars stories, the planet Wunderland receives similar treatment.
The Nordbos were one of the Nineteen Families;
special rights and obligations are gone but honor remains;
the Nordbo house, on the cliffs of Korsness, overlooks the sea.
A room facing the sea contains:
fluoros;
swartwood furniture;
murky carpet;
leatherbound books;
ancestral portraits;
a stone mantel;
old crossed oars, used in a family rescue by the first Wunderlander Nordbo.
These details about the house are recounted on a single page but make an impression.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One thing I remember about the Nineteen Families of Wunderland was of how, even after the Kzinti conquest and the loss of all real power, some of these Patricians still felt obliged to act as go-betweens to the Kzinti on one hand and their former clients, tenants, retainers, and other humans on the other. Which meant attempts to moderate some Kzin demands on humans had to include acceding to others. These often ignominious compromises would lead to some people unfairly calling them collaborators. And most humans in such a situation were not. Not WILLINGLY.
Ad astra! Sean
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