Raising The Dead II

In An Ending And A Quest, I compared Ian Kenmuir flying to Dagny Beynac's tomb and the Norse god, Hermodr, descending into Hel although I did not suggest that Poul Anderson had intended his readers to make such a comparison. However, there is a considerably stronger parallel between Kenmuir's reactivation of download Dagny and a comparable scene in a much earlier novel. See Raising The Dead.

When the reactivated download mumbles: "'It roars...'" (The Stars Are Also Fire, 43, p. 526), we imagine that she hears something like a river in the hereafter but, of course, this revenant is not in a hereafter. Kenmuir thinks that a damaged circuit generates a signal that the mind perceives as noise. The mind regains memories and images:

"'The sea roars. Breakers. Wind. Salt. Driftwood like huge bones. Here, a sand dollar. For you, Uncans.'" (ibid.)

(Uncle Anson. Anson Guthrie.) At this, the download laughs. Kenmuir has to struggle to hold her attention and to extract information, like Skafloc conjuring the dead.