Nicol's musings take form:
"There was no moment of revelation, yet there was a moment when he realized that something irreversible had taken place." (p. 146)
No moment of revelation but a moment when he realized! But, over the page, we find a genuine Andersonian moment of realization. Nicol wonders why he was provoked into stabbing and killing Seyant:
"Well, but there was the knife in my hand; and there Falaire was, and he also her lover, or so she had led me to think -
"Nicol froze. He stood motionless..." (p. 150)
The Lunarians had asked him to swear on the knife. Swearing on an object sounds un-Lunarian. Seyant kept provoking him. Nicol was not in his right mind...
The Lunarians have faked Seyant's death by stabbing to get a handle on Nicol.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The faked death of Seyant reminded me of how Anderson liked mysteries and wrote some, both in and out of the SF genre. Including an ingeniously conceived murder in THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
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