(I have been trying to avoid using that cover illustration!)
The "Realization" at the end of Chapter II had been just that Heim could:
"...corner one of [the Aleriona] delegation and ask..." (p. 25)
- as he had just thought so there was no big mystery there. The Aleriona in question is:
"Cynbe ru Taren, Intellect Master of the Garden of War, fleet admiral, and military specialist of the Grand Commission of Negotiators..." (III, p. 26)
"Garden of War" sounds not only odd - alien - but also contradictory but, as we have already seen, the Aleriona live among vegetation so maybe it is on their minds a lot. Cynbe is franker in private than any of his human opposite numbers would have been and his way of expressing himself is somewhat roundabout but he seems to say that, if allowed to return to Earth, the surviving New Europeans would be a permanent pro-war faction and this would be a Bad Thing for Alerion on the occasion of the next diplomatic incident - by which he acknowledges that more such incidents are anticipated. His kind was bred to cope with human beings and maybe he is still learning how to do this. Indeed, I think that that will emerge later in the novel. Learning to understand human beings might lead to sharing or empathizing with a human point of view.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Not if some races have ambitions which clash with those of other species. Or have fears that the very existence of mankind is a long term threat to them.
Ad astra! Sea
"live among vegetation"
I suspect that any space habitat would be essentially one big greenhouse if it is to supply enough food for the inhabitants. So space faring humans would live among vegetation. However, I doubt they would come to use a phrase like "Garden of War".
Kaor, Jim!
And we see Anderson using similar ideas in some of his stories.
I recall mention in THE STAR FOX of things like "...deep minded and far ranging were the intellect masters of the gardens of knowledge" among the Aleriona.
Ad astra! Sean
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