Nicholas van Rijn's Reception Hall
an anachronistic armed human receptionist
lucent plastic
winking, talking machines
jade columns
vaulted dimness
guards checking and disarming visitors in the lobby below
Van Rijn's Office
large
an entire transparent wall showing Djakarta and the Java Sea
extraterrestrial curios on shelves
thousands of worn, leather-bound books
a large, littered desk
a Martian sandroot St. Dismas
tobacco smoke haze and reek
One of van Rijn's Mansions
on the peak of Kilimanjaro
among undying snows
easily defensible
a favoured conference venue
high turrets
glowing lights
armed, liveried staff greeting his aircar
corridors paneled in extrasolar woods
janie scent
Mozart
conference table with a datacom terminal for each colleague
(We are seeing only one side of Terra.)
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not so sure it's that anachronistic for Old Nick's receptionist to double as a bodyguard. Recall how van Rijn's enemies tried to fatally strand him on Diomedes in THE MAN WHO COUNTS.
As an extremely wealthy man (never mind his whinings about needing a few credits to support his impoverished old age!) Old Nick could afford to have leather bindings for thousands of his most favorite books. I have a few leather bound books, both of them Easton Press editions of works by Anderson.
I don't know what kind of material Martian sandroot is, but that little statuette of St. Dismas reminded me of how I keep a plastic statuette of the Christ Child of Prague on my desk. Mere plastic, but I've had it since boyhood.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I conflated the ideas in my summary.The anachronism was not that she was armed but that she was human.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That's easy to explain! Old Nick had an eye for pretty women! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
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