Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Some Details On Rustum II

Orbit Unlimited.

The town is called "Anchor" again on p. 112.

We are told that autumn leaves rustle:

"...with a sound that was not like October in New England..." (p. 114)

Nevertheless, this phrase makes us think of October in New England and informs us that some of the colonists remember that month there. There are other non-Terrestrial details: 

the larger moon visibly changes size and phase;
the smaller moon visibly moves;
Sol is visible above Bootes;
a bower phoenix's nest of luminous fungi hangs like a goblin lantern;
a blue glow wing flits;
a singing lizard trills.
 
Characters that we saw on Earth in part one now interact in a completely different context on Rustum. Their society is going somewhere. They and we do not yet know where. 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Suggesting similarities with phenomena on Earth while stressing their differences from analogous things on Rustum was Anderson's way of making those differences feel REAL to us.

Ad astra! Sean