Boomtown

"Holmgang."

What interests me most in this story is the:

"...permanent boomtown atmosphere..." (I, p. 21)

- created by the miners on Achilles, the main asteroid at one of the Jovian Trojan points. Unfortunately, the Last Chance bar on Achilles is introduced only so that it can be setting for the murder of Johnny Malone. We learn that:

Venus has changed since "The Big Rain" because it is now the home of violent kilted clans;

a conspiratorial Humanist movement now opposes the Solar Union and the Psychotechnic Institute and has, for its own purposes, murdered Johnny.

So we have returned to the earlier theme of the protean enemy committing atrocities for supposedly noble reasons.

The action moves abruptly back and forth between Bo Jonsson stalking and being stalked on an asteroid and the earlier events that had led up to this "holmgang" duel. Bo and his antagonist argue about Humanism, then fight physically. There is a happy resolution to this story but there is also a successful Humanist Revolt between "Holmgang" and "Cold Victory." History marches on.