In a broad, dark chamber of Lythan's and Blawsa's household, tiers of benches face an outsized screen. Weapons hang on walls and banners from high rafters. The High Wyvan's voice is heard from the screen where he and his colleagues are seen as they stand before David Falkayn's house on First Island. Inside the chamber, feathers rustle and claws and alatans scrape while a breeze from a window open to the rain outside adds smells of damp earth to the woodsmoke Ythrian body odours. The breeze stirs the banners. Ythrians, winged carnivores more at home in the elements than human beings, will not object to but more probably welcome a damp breeze indoors. The only human being present, Christopher Holm, feels fully at home among feathers and claws which I would find unsettling, to say the least. This descriptive passage addresses four senses, omitting only taste. As Larry Niven wrote, Anderson immerses us in a whole new future world.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
True, what you said about Anderson's ability to immerse us in the scenes he describes. But, again, I find Christopher Holm irritating, because of how he not so subtly deprecates his own species.
The description given here also reminded me of analogous descriptions of Castle Afon on Merseia and the Coral Palace on Terra.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I certainly remembered the descriptions of Merseian gatherings both on Merseia and on Dennitza.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I also thought of the Crystal Moon, purchased by the then Merseian ambassador to the Empire a century before HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE.
Ad astra! Sean
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