My favourite prose passage in this novel is the conclusion:
"Snowpeaks flamed. The sun stood up in a shout of joy.
"High is heaven and holy." (XIX, p. 662)
These two short paragraphs are comparable to the conclusions of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows and "Star of the Sea," which I have also quoted.
My favourite scene in The People Of The Wind is in Chapter I when Arinnian, ascending from Gray on antigrav, enjoys the view. We have described this scene before and need not repeat every detail but they include:
the town of Gray sprawling among green trees and susin and colourful gardens on hills surrounding Falkayn Bay;
the Hesperian Sea, sun-flared silver, horizonward sapphire;
a cargo vessel from Brendan's Islands;
above, patrolling space warcraft (war is imminent);
on the inland horizon, the Andromedas/the Weathermother;
outside Gray, Ythrian ranches, human farms and native ecology.
We can see why the colonists settled the Hesperian Islands before tackling this Coronan continent. Beyond Hesperia and over the horizon is Oronesia. We will learn more about that archipelago and also about Brendan's and other islands later in this novel.
It is human beings that build cities, only two on Avalon: Gray and Centauri. But some Ythrians live in highrises in Gray. Thus have the two species come to intermingle. Christopher Holm/Arinnian has joined Highsky Choth which is based in the Weathermother but has agreed with his parents that he will remain in Gray to complete his mathematical studies. Choths have been accepting human members for the past century. Thus, Avalonian history has progressed a long way from "Rescue on Avalon."
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But do you have any favorite opening paragraphs among Anderson's works?
Avalon had two major mostly human cities, Gray and Centauri. But there must have also been some smaller cities, towns, villages.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
No opening paragraphs spring to mind.
Paul.
Maybe the start of THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that, it was modeled by Anderson on the beginning of Kipling's novel KIM.
I can think of several examples from Anderson's works where their opening paragraphs stuck with me. Such as the Scandinavian saga opening of THE BROKEN SWORD, and the beginnings of A CIRCUS OF HELLS and HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE.
A well written opening paragraph acts as a teaser, it says just enough about the story, in an interesting way, that the reader will, hopefully, become interested and willing to go on reading. Anderson was very good at writing these teasers.
Ad astra! Sean
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