Of the four men, Sverdlov and Nakamura have died. Ryerson joins them. The attached cover illustration tells the story. Ryerson teleports into a humanly unbreathable atmosphere. A spacesuited being carries his body back. First contact.
"Not fish or frog or mammal, it was so other a face that [Maclaren]'s mind would not wholly register it." (p. 130)
So is it even a face? The features are blurred but there are "...tendrils and great red eyes." (ibid.)
Two (?) eyes at the front on the top? Not nearly alien enough...
(Brevity is, if not the soul of wit, then at least the result of haste. Laters, maybe.)
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think you misunderstood the illustration. Look closer, the head of this alien is inside a greenish globe helmet, with what looks like one reddish eye. What you thought were two eyes was probably meant to be red warning lights.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But "...great red eyes..." is a quote from the text.
One eye doesn't give you binocular depth perception. More than two is superfluous -- which doesn't mean that you can't have more than two, just that it's less likely. Occam's Razor on a biological scale.
Indeed. I think spiders have eight or something?
Maybe eyes around the head and on the top would not be superfluous but advantageous?
Stapledon's Last Men have an extensible telescopic eye on the crown of the head but their bodies are artificially evolved.
Kaor, Paul!
Then we have to assume the illustration and go by the text--this alien had a minimum two eyes.
I prefer what Stirling said, iow. Most intelligent races will most likely have two eyes.
Ad astra! Sean
I meant to say "...the illustration erred..."
Drat! Sean
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