The stars beyond the Southern Cross:
"...lay where Terra's writ did not run, the homes of savages and of barbarian predators who had too soon gotten spacecraft and nuclear weapons... they housed darkness." (p. 386)
Barbari were those who did not speak either Greek or Latin and who lived outside the Roman Empire. The Chinese also called everyone else something translated as "barbarians." Here, in this volume of space beyond the Southern Cross, aliens are being classified as savages, barbarians and "'...wild races...'" (p. 397) It sounds like an ideal setting for an entire sub-series about an agent other than Flandry, someone with a couple of alien sidekicks who has to keep confirming that the wild races stay "'...well in check.'" (ibid.)
Years ago, a poster for an sf publisher trumpeted:
"Remember the days when androids didn't have personality problems, every Earthman was a hero and the only good alien was a dead one?"
Such a poster would be inappropriate for Poul Anderson's Technic History as a whole but might reflect the attitude of mercenary characters in a potential sub-series.
Sector Alpha Crucis includes the industrial rogue planet, Satan, a possession of the Duke of Hermes. Both Satan and Hermes mean a lot to anyone who has read the earlier part of the Technic History.
Flandry's superiors have had their eyes on him since Starkad just as van Rijn had had his eyes on Falkayn since Ivanhoe.
No comments:
Post a Comment