As a male gorilloid approaches Torrance:
"...the sphincters in his neck opened and shut like sucking mouths..." (p. 592)
Ugh! Poul Anderson is making sure that we do not forget those sphincters. They remind us of Ythrian antlibranches which pump oxygen directly into the blood but the sphincters' function is different.
The "...spacehand..." who helps Torrance is:
"...a stocky slant-eyed nomad from Altai..." (ibid.)
This is another of those Many Planets. Van Rijn's employee, Emil Dalmady, the hero of "Esau," is from Altai and Dominic Flandry will adventure there a long time later in "A Message in Secret"/Mayday Orbit. The future history gains substance with each reinforced piece of background information.
2 comments:
Though Altai is apparently not cut off from interstellar travel then, the way it became by Flandry's time.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It's easy enough to see how or why Altai drifted out of the galactic mainstream after Dalmady's time. Once the ships used to bring the first colonists to the planet had worn out and were not replaced, isolation and relative poverty would ensure Altai getting cut off.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment