Winged and feathered, Thuriak and Keshchyi dip, soar and revel in their birthright, "...the freedom of heaven...," (p. 415) whereas wingless Nat must trudge in a straight line with his gravbelt. The Ythrians' ownership of the unbounded skies gets Nat down.
In the concluding paragraph, Nat remembers swimming, diving, surfing, waves, depths, beautiful fish and sandy bottom with sunlight overhead. He feels sorry for Thuriak who has just finished spelling out the moral of the story:
"'I have learned how good it is that strengths be different, so that they may be shared.'" (p. 420)
A beautiful contrast and a universal message in Poul Anderson's contribution to an anthology of juvenile adventure fiction, this contribution also comprising a welcome addition his major future history series.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't think Ythrians will be able to fly on every planet humans had settled. Almost definitely not on heavier gravity worlds like Imhotep (which is about as much as humans could tolerate). Even Terra, with a gravity "only" 25 percent greater than Ythrian gravity, might give them trouble.
Ad astra! Sean
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