"CAST OFF FROM ITS FELLOW BITS OF CONDENSING MATTER AT THE BIRTH OF THE GALAXY, THE PLANET HAD NEVER KNOWN ANOTHER STAR; FOR ALL OF TIME IT SWUNG FREE IN THE VASTNESS OF INTERSTELLAR SPACE. NOW MERE CHANCE WAS BRINGING IT CLOSE TO THE STAR BETA CRUCIS...A CHANCE SO IMPROBABLE THAT THE ODDS AGAINST THE MEETING WERE ALMOST INCALCULABLE. AND AS IT DRIFTED INTO THE SPHERE OF MEN, THE SECRETS OF THE WANDERER WERE VALUABLE ENOUGH TO UNLEASH FORCES THAT AIMED FOR NOTHING LESS THAN THE TOTAL CONTROL OF THE UNIVERSE!"
-Blurb on Poul Anderson, Satan's World (New York, 1972), back cover.
All accurate except for the concluding six words! Surely the novel is dramatic enough without adding a falsehood about control of the universe? Poul Anderson frequently emphasizes that Technic civilization is confined to a single volume of space at the far edge of one spiral arm of one galaxy. Other galaxies are seen but that is all. Controlling the whole universe, if that idea is even conceivable, would be an entirely different story. If such a narrative could be made coherent, then Anderson would have been able to tell it but he did not.
2 comments:
I don't think the copywriter had any conception of how -big- the universe is.
Poul did, of course.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Blurbs can be wonderful and amazing things!
Mr. Stirling: Absolutely! Anderson strove to be as accurate as the knowledge available to him at the time he wrote a story allowed him to be.
Ad astra! Sean
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