Port Nevada

"The Pirate."

Braganza Diane flies Trevelyan Micah from her medieval stone house at Laugerie Haute in Dordogne to Aerogare Bordeaux from where he takes a carrier to Port Nevada, arriving as sunset purples the western North American mountains. The city of Port Nevada comprises large square buildings, clamorous traffic, growling machines, shrill voices and flickering signs. Poul Anderson presents a list-description long even for him. We are told that, in this city, human and non-human beings:

hustle

jostle

chisel

brawl

clash

steal

evangelize

grow rich or poor

come

go

are forgotten

 

- that cargo ships bring "heedless vigor" (p. 139) to such enclaves;

 

that unspecified stinks assail Trevelyan, who is familiar with this kind of town on a hundred planets;

 

that smoke from a dozen drugs stings the eyes in several dives.

 

Trevelyan's target, Murdoch Juan, has requested privacy in the expensive, discrete Altair House. However, the Coordination Service recently prevented a war on the extraterrestrial headwaiter's home planet so Trevelyan, showing his ID, gains access.

 

This is all that we ever see of Port Nevada, one of the many cities and future cities in Poul Anderson's works.