When the Nomads approach the spaceboats in which they will escape from the Alorian planet, the boats are described:
"They stood clustered as if ready to leap, spearheads poised at infinity, moonlight icy-gray on their sides." (p. 178)
This sentence summarizes American sf writers' glorification of interstellar travel as the ultimate freedom. Not just space but infinity. Moonlight shining on metal spaceboats highlights space technology as against the natural environment of a planetary surface where the Alori want life to stay.
Trevelyan glories in the return to space:
"Skyward, outward, starward - the words were a song within him." (p. 181)
Starward! is the title of a history book in the Pasychotechnic History.
When they are in the boat, Trevelyan closes the door:
"The wind's noise dimmed and silence came down like a falling moon." (p. 180)
Here, the wind's noise represents the environment of the Alorian planet which is being left behind. The moon intervenes again. The silence inside the spaceboat is like a moon falling onto the planet!
A shout over the intercom is followed by "...a great howling of wind." (p. 183)
When Sean asks what is wrong, the wind hoots and there is "...a cold draft up the gravity tube." (ibid.)
The planet has retaliated. Ilaloa has jumped out of the airlock while the ascending spaceboat was still in the atmosphere. But, despite everything:
"The sky darkened around them and the stars came forth." (p. 184)
And thus ends a very good novel in the Psychotechnic History.
2 comments:
Note that nobody is stopping the Alori living as they please on their planet.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But the Alori were ideological fanatics who believed they had a holy duty to extirpate technological civilizations. You can't reason with ideologues!
Ad astra! Sean
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