Sheldon Wyler and his ultimate employers, the Seven In Space, are unscrupulous and Merseian aristocrats become enemies of mankind so you might ask: who is good among the enemies of the League? Well, van Rijn transforms the Baburites into customers and Anderson manages to transform even that arch-schemer, Benoni Strang, into a partially sympathetic character right at the end. Also "enemies of the League" potentially include members of all those societies that the League leaves behind in its accumulation of wealth. Clearly, Wyler means to include such societies in his remarks. Some of these societies band together into Supermetals but others might have joined the Baburites. Potentially - only potentially - David Falkayn became an enemy of the League when he was moved to break his oath of fealty to van Rijn. That action could have resulted in an open conflict between Falkayn and his fellow Master Merchants. Fortunately, van Rijn was flexible enough to accommodate that situation.
Manse Everard broke the laws of the Time Patrol but in circumstances that made the Danellians recognize his worth on their side of the war against temporal chaos. And these reflections have again taken us past midnight. Good night.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree Anderson could show us the PATHOS in how even a character he clearly disliked, such as Benoni Strang, died. But I don't think that necessarily means he saw much, if any, good in Strang.
Happy New Year! Sean
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