It would not be a Poul Anderson story without some action scenes. Sure enough, Hollister rallies his men, attacks the uranium mine at Lucifer, frees the prisoners forced to work there, then leads his augmented army to capture the capital city, New America. From there, he will return to Earth in a ferry, then return to Venus with a liberation fleet. It's a wrap - except that a future history series cannot be just good guys bad guys routines. But this one is not. We will see some daily life on Earth in the next instalment.
The combat provides some slight Andersonian humour or at least a look at the lighter side of life. At Lucifer, Captain Thomas, besieged in an outbuilding, demands:
"'You there! What is the meaning of this?'" (VII, p. 263)
Hollister laughs hysterically. When he has reorganized his new fighting force, he finds that:
"The whole unit was enough to make any military man break out in a cold sweat, but it was all he had." (p. 264)
However, we also see an extremely unfunny side of war. The released convicts assigned to guard their former guards tear them apart. Such things happen during liberations but hopefully the liberation sticks and the violence stops.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I guess one of the many Anderson stories I should reread is "The Big Rain." After all I thought better of it in my previous rereadings.
Ad astra! Sean
Generally speaking, if you kill someone their friends and relations want to kill -you-. A good deal of human history springs from this.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! And one reason the State arose and took root was as a means of limiting or preventing vigilante justice. But feuds and vendettas always springs up again when a State collapses.
Ad astra! Sean
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