Monday, 18 January 2021

The Hidden Sun II

The Man Who Counts, XVI.

The Flock flies hundreds of kilometers north to the island of Dawrnach where:

a cold Ocean current deflected by the archipelago further south flows up into the Iceberg Sea;

heavy dark tides wash onto black sands;

thin straight trees and quaking tussocks are sprinkled over the lower slopes of an extinct volcano;

there are offshore ice-floes, permanent glaciers and few sea birds;

"...the hidden sun threw its clotted-blood light on a sterile country." (p. 247)

I was drawn to this descriptive passage by the phrase, "...the hidden sun...," which we have encountered elsewhere. See The Hidden Sun. Striking phrases resonate between literary works.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

It would have been too prosaic to simply say "Heavy clouds obscured the sun." Not that I mind in the least writers trying to find striking ways of saying things like that!

It was precisely because Asimov wrote almost always in ONLY the plainest, most prosaic ways possible, which eventually contributed to me becoming tired of his works.

Ad astra! Sean