Thursday, 10 March 2022

Rescue On Rustum

Orbit Unlimited, part four, 8.

Svoboda and Coffin rescue Danny but I am not clear how they do it. Danny is in a giant spearfowl's nest on a crag. The spearfowl has hovered above and now spirals down. Svoboda is a short way below Danny but cannot reach him. Coffin is further down and will not be able to climb up. Svoboda directs Danny to play dead and, when the spearfowl lands, grab its legs. This causes the spearfowl to take off again and Svoboda shoots it. 

I've got it! The wounded spearfowl with Danny still clinging to its legs sinks down to the foot of the crag where Coffin shoots it dead. I had not got the sinking down to the foot of the crag part. I thought that the spearfowl just sank back down into the nest yet Coffin was somehow inexplicably there and Svoboda was inexplicably able to join them. But what a dangerous procedure. It would not work like that in real life.

The account has Poul Anderson's usual wind and darkness and moments of realization.

All that remains of Orbit Unlimited is the aftermath back on High America in part four, 9. But this is probably the last post until after a day trip to Liverpool tomorrow. Watch the new The Batman film. Gotham City Police HQ is the Liverpool Liver Building and Gotham City Hall is St. George's Hall, Liverpool.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

While I agree that MOST times such a means of rescuing Danny would almost certainly have failed, a desperate situation called for a desperate solution, which succeeded THIS time.

Ad astra! Sean