This chapter begins:
"Two nights later a gale blew from the southeast, out of the sea and over the island and out to the water again. Trevelyan heard it whistle as if it were calling him." (p. 171)
Every reader probably senses the appropriateness and evocativeness of this gale. I had intended to quote only the opening sentence but the second is even more significant.
First, the Nomads will escape from the island and then from the planet under cover of this gale. Secondly, the gale represents the turmoil that the Alori have tried to avoid by concealing themselves from, and also by setting out to subvert, human technological civilization. That turmoil is coming for them and, of course, Trevelyan hears it calling him.
Poul Anderson's action-adventure sf is also literature.
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