Approaching the planet Babur, Falkayn sees a tawny globe veiled partly by night and partly by swirling white clouds tinged gold, brown or pale red:
"The majesty of the sight gave Falkayn to understand why its human discoverer had named it for a conqueror who went down in the memory of India as the Tiger. He didn't know how well he chose, he thought." (p. 81)
But Poul Anderson did know how well he chose. Here he invokes the history of the Mughal Empire, incorporating its connotations into his History of Technic Civilization. For a moment, we think of tigers, India, Kipling etc. Then we read on but the Tiger remains in the background.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And a planet named Babur also brought to mine the world named Sueiman, which we see in "Esau." With both of them having links to eash other!
Ad astra! Sean
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