The "Mother of the Moon" narrative concludes in Chapter 40 when download Dagny facilitates the Lunar revolution and Dagny's Terran son, Lars Rydberg, promises the download that he will wipe her program. The remaining chapters, 41-46, are set in the later period.
What a quest Poul Anderson imagines for Ian Kenmuir. In the ritually maintained historic spaceship Kestrel and pursued by Peace Authority spaceships, he travels from Guthrie House on Vancouver Island to Dagny Beynac's Lunar tomb which houses both the original Dagny's cremated remains and the download that Lars had deactivated but not wiped. Kenmuir reactivates the download, gets her to recite the coordinates of Proserpina, then, at her request, smashes the download with a sledgehammer. Kenmuir is a hard sf equivalent of the Norse god, Hermodr, riding Odin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, down to Hel.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I must have read THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE two or three times, but I never thought before of comparing Kenmuir's journey to Dagny Beynac's Lunar tomb to stories of Norse gods riding Odin's eight legged horse down to Hel. Did Anderson himself had that in mind while writing this part of the story?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I don't know. I am sure that Anderson was at least aware of the strong similarity between reactivating the download and conjuring a departed soul from the hereafter.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Almost certainly, yes. I also thought just now of how Skafloc used necromancy in THE BROKEN SWORD to rouse the dead Orm and his sons.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Somewhere back on the blog, I have compared what Skafloc does with what Kenmuir does.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Alas, long since forgotten by me! But something to look up again.
Ad astra! Sean
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