Death And The Future

"The Big Rain."

"The minutes dragged by. A man at the point of death was supposed to review his whole life, but Hollister didn't feel up to it. He was too tired." (VIII, p. 278)

Are we supposed to review our whole life? Or is the idea not just that our whole life is supposed to rush before us?

This paragraph continues:

"He sat watching the telescreen which showed the space field. Dust and wind and the skeleton cradles, emptiness, and a roiling gloom beyond." (ibid.)

Here are the wind and gloom from before together with a few more relevant details: dust, skeleton, emptiness. Hollister sees potential death and the unknown.

The story approaches its conclusion. After the upbeat ending, we turn to The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2, where the contents page reveals a much broader sweep of future history:

"Quixote and the Windmill": a robot and men on Earth;

"Holmgang": combat on an asteroid;

"Cold Victory": interplanetary war;

"What Shall It Profit?": immortality?;

"The Troublemakers": a generation ship;

"The Snows of Ganymede": conflict in the outer Solar System;

"Brake": social disintegration;

"Gypsy": the first Nomads;

"Star Ship": an isolated extra-solar colony.

We recognize Asimovian and Heinleinian themes and the take-off of the Psychotechnic History into an interstellar future.