Wednesday 9 October 2024

Beyond Mars

"Holmgang." 

The scene described after the opening proposition:

"Darkness and the chill glitter of stars." (p. 19)
"...a whirling speck of stone..." (ibid.)
no horizon
a jagged black rock cliff
shadows
the Milky Way
"...igneous wilderness..."
"...one long thin crag..."
no sound except heartbeat and breath inside a spacesuit
no air, heat, water, life or work of man
spinning "...granite nakedness..."
cold from the ground

I do not want to spend any time there! - at least not in just a spacesuit. Two guys have gone there to fight, hence the title. This is the The Green Hills Of Earth-equivalent period of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. History will move on but it will go all the way downhill first.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Falling behind, pressure of other things to do has taken me from blogging here.

Ad astra! Sean