Sheldon Wyler, a human being, works for the Baburites because he has no loyalty either to the Solar Commonwealth or to the Polesotechnic League. We, the readers, know that Wyler previously worked for Stellar Metals, a member company of the Seven In Space cartel. However, Falkayn and his companions, who might have found this fact significant, do not know it.
Several Merseians, like Blyndwyr of the Vach Ruethen, have enlisted in the new Baburite space navy. Wyler comments:
"'Mostly they belong to the aristocratic party at home and have no love for the League, considering how it shunted their kind aside and dealt instead with the Gethfennu group. You know, not many League people seem to understand what a cosmos of enemies it's made for itself over the years.'" (p. 96)
In the trader team story, "Day of Burning," the Gethfennu, organized crime, were the only international network on Merseia capable of a coordinated response to the imminent threat of radiation from the supernova, Valenderay.
If this were an ERB novel, then the Good Guys would have many enemies, all of whom would be personally despicable and morally reprehensible: cowardly, spiteful, dishonorable etc. (In one of ERB's Land That Time Forgot novels, an IWW member works for the Germans during WWI and hates all Americans.) Poul Anderson shows us good and bad on both sides when the League encounters its "...cosmos of enemies..."
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not sure you were entirely correct about how you said Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his stories--at least the ones set on Barsoom. Most times the villains in the Barsoom books were as valiant as John Carter and his friends. And I remember how even the cowardly Jeddak we see in THE CHESSMEN OF MARS redeemed his honor and regained the respect of his people by, at the end, dying bravely.
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean,
OK. There is a bit more in ERB than I remember.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, I am a fan of the Barsoom books! Far more so than I ever was of the Tarzan stories.
Happy New Year! Sean
Sean,
John Carter is much better than Tarzan. The first Tarzan book is nonsensical.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Perhaps, in an inchoate and inarticulate way, I realized even as a boy that the Tarzan books were simply not as good as the Barsoom stories.
Happy New Year! Sean
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