Tuesday, 4 January 2022

The Weathermother

"To those who read, good flight.
"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."
-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

These are the opening sentences of Hloch's introduction to The Earth Book Of Stormgate although, when the entire contents of the Earth Book are incorporated into The Technic Civilization Saga, this general introduction is reconfigured as an introduction merely to the first Earth Book story, "Wings of Victory," which is the second in the Saga.

You might think that the Weathermother is a colorful detail invented for Hloch's introduction. However, it is taken from one of the stories:

"The loftiest heights on the planet Avalon belong to the Andromeda Range. But that is a name bestowed by humans. Not for nothing do the Ythrians who have joined them in their colonizing venture call that region the Weathermother. Almost exactly two days - twenty-two hours - after he had spied the stranger, a hurricane caught Jack Birnam."

Despite his allergy to, and resentment of, Ythrians, Jack will have to rescue the stranger who is Ayan, Wyvan of Stormgate.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Jack's allergy to Ythrians might or might not have been psychosomatic, but some people really are physically allergic to various kinds of animals. And, even if genuine, I wonder how the medical science of Jack's time healed such allergies? we are not given any details!

Ad astra! Sean