Marin, designed to resemble Langley's long dead wife, has been conditioned to be his willing slave. He regards any kind of slavery as wrong but she points out that life conditions everyone. It does but it would still be wrong to condition fellow human beings to be willing slaves. Langley, of course, will treat Marin as a free companion - and pleasing him as a willing companion suits her conditioning, in any case.
Langley and his new allies of the Commercial Society search for Saris the Holatan in the Carlsbad Caverns using a "...neural tracker..." (CHAPTER THIRTEEN, p. 119), thus confirming that "neutral tracker" was incorrect in an earlier chapter as we had thought at the time.
Andersonian action is necessary for the Society to rescue Langley and Marin from house arrest by the Technarchy. Spaceships manoeuvre and fight not only in atmosphere but between tall buildings in a city. Gravity control and so forth. Plausible? Anderson handles action well but, if that was all that he did, then we would not reread to anything like the current extent.
Happy Easter. Happy Ramadan. Happy First of April.
I retired twelve years ago today.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think Marin was exactly designed to be like Langley's long deceased wife. My recollection of what Brannoch did was of him consulting slave dealers and inspecting their "wares" till he found a woman who fitted his specifications.
Slavery is a bad thing, but at least the Technarchy seems to have set limits on what could legally be done to them. And manumission was allowed, which is better than nothing.
Ad astra and Happy Retirement! Sean
Sean,
Marin was designed to resemble Peggy and another copy could have been made if the first had been lost.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I dunno, that seems like Brannoch could order a child be conceived, "decanted" a la BRAVE NEW WORLD, artificially grown to adulthood, educated/indoctrinated, all within days.
Getting close to finish rereading Stirling's DAGGERS IN DARKNESS, then I'll be ready to read again THE LONG WAY HOME.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment