Friday 2 July 2021

The Decline Of The Kith II

(Another book with the same title.) 

In Poul Anderson's Starfarers, Chapters 17, 21, 46 and 49-51 are a revised Kith History. In 49-51, the histories of Envoy and Fleetwing converge. (Later: The revised Kith History is longer than this. See here.)

In 47, Envoy returns to Earth. However, in 49, the ship has relocated to Harbor where its crew have settled. Kith ships still visit but also unaccountably disappear. Fleetwing is detected approaching from the direction of Cassiopeia but suddenly becomes undetectable, indicating that it has come off the zero-zero drive. Drive malfunctions turn out to account for Kith disappearances. (In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, Nomad ships disappear because of Alori subversion.) Envoy goes to investigate Fleetwing and rescues her surviving crew, including Evar Shaun and Tari Ernen.

On Harbor, a man named Kenri Fanion lives in the Kith village on the Isle of Weyan. As in other future histories, personal and place names provide historical continuity.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm definitely interested in rereading STARFARERS after I finish THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS. I only have two more pages to go!

The last part of BOAT, the very long Chapter XIX, touches on many of the themes more fully developed in Anderson's late phase works: STL travel, advanced computers and AIs, drastic socio/economic changes, etc.

Ad astra! Sean