Envoy communicates audiovisually with Earth. A scholar interprets for an enthroned woman, the Unifier Areli, who "'...bids peace...'" (48, p. 447) She is not mentioned again. (She is mentioned again but not much.)
"It was clear that robotics and nanotechnology had made all necessities, services as well as goods, and perhaps all comforts too, free, like air and sunshine. There was presumably some way to control their distribution and maintain a stable population, but whatever coercion this required was not obvious." (49, p. 450)
There is no need either to control the distribution of air and sunshine or to coerce an affluent and informed population to practice birth control. Poul Anderson imagines an advanced civilization but either he or his characters have difficulty in accepting its implications.
Kith visits are rare and unimportant and the scant interplanetary traffic is entirely robotic. Kith no longer live on Earth. The Envoy crew remain starfolk and cannot settle on Earth.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And it was that "Unifer" which struck me as being much like a queen or high priestess. So Seladorian Earth did have, like it or not, some kind of formalized leadership.
And as Captain Nansen and the other survivors of the "Envoy's" crew soon discover, not all was well on Earth! There was slowly accumulating dissatisfaction.
Ad astra! Sean
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