Ten Years Later

Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 370-408.

I especially appreciate one particular change of scene and of narrative point of view in Poul Anderson's "Lodestar." The opening section of this story ends with the following single-sentence paragraph:

"And then his glance passed over the Nebula, and as if it had spoken to him across more than a thousand parsecs, he fell silent and grew tense where he sat." (p. 375)

The viewpoint character is David Falkayn. Thus, we have been told what Falkayn was perceiving, thinking and feeling since the beginning of the story. In the second sentence, he heard a blaster shot and smelled ozone. In the second, he felt a near miss. In the third, he was dazzled. Thus, it must have been he who saw the lightning which "...reached..." (p. 370) in the opening sentence.

However, in the concluding sentence of the section, the viewpoint begins to withdraw from Falkayn. We are told that he sees the Crab Nebula, that he thinks something about it - as if it spoke to him - and that what he thinks causes him to grow tense where he sits but we are not told what it is. He is having an Andersonian moment of realization, as I have remarked before.

After this enigmatic sentence, a double space between paragraphs indicates a change of scene. We imagine a screen adaptation in which the camera pulls back from Falkayn, then from the spaceship, Muddlin' Through. If Falkayn is beginning to disclose his thoughts to his team-mates, then we are not hearing them.

Next, the omniscient narrator takes up the story but I am being interrupted here so I will publish this much now. We will transition to ten years later.