The Arzunians are tall, humanoid, god-like, helmeted, mailed and black-cloaked, armed with swords and spears. In other words, they are not science fictional extra-terrestrials! Poul Anderson could have deployed the easy enough explanation that these aliens use mental powers to appear as they do, as in "The Queen of Air and Darkness," but he does not do that in this story.
It is a surprise, even a shock, when Donovan greets these implausible beings by name:
"'Hello, Morzach, Uboda, Zegoian, Korstuzan, Davleka,' he said." (p. 412)
We had not known until now that he had been that close to them and could be again. Donovan's divided loyalty is the main theme of this story. The Arzunians want him to lead the Terrans into an ambush.
"The highway curved between great looming walls of cragged old rock, a shadow tunnel with the wind yowling far overhead and the sun a disc of blood." (p. 416)
I said that we would meet the wind again. Appropriately, it yowls, cliffs loom, the highway is shadowed and the sun is blood-coloured. Everything is in place for the last stand of a dying ancient race to be followed by a new beginning for Ansa in the Empire. When "Sargasso..." ends on p. 436 and The People Of The Wind begins immediately afterwards on p. 337, we enter an entirely different Imperial era. There is a similar transition in the Flandry sub-series from the opening two short stories to subsequent instalments. We pass from sword-fighting humanoid alien races, one such species horned, to more credible human colonists of extra-solar planets. A future history series incorporates disparate narratives.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Reminds me just a bit of another very ancient planet and race, Chereion and Aycharaych's species.
Ad astra! Sean
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