After the recent action scene: the captured rocket, also described as a boat, has wheels. It moves down a corridor and up an airlock ramp, then takes off. Again, the escape goes more smoothly than it might have done. We are told that:
"It was useful, having enemies indoctrinated out of all initiative." (VI, p. 189)
Why is this? It turns out that:
"No one had thought to cut off the automatically opening valves." (ibid.)
Poul Anderson's narrative imperative is to get the Engineers out of the city as quickly as possible so there is a plausible explanation for each comparatively easy stage in their escape. His next imperative is to have the rocket shot down and most of the Engineers killed. Thus, we return to the opening scene where three, then only two, survivors trekked across Ganymede. Everything since the end of Chapter I has been a flashback. Now, at the beginning of VII, we have returned to our starting point. So what happens next? We read on but I take another break from rereading. Anderson's heroes endure - those of them that survive, of course. I think that human resilience is his most consistent message.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We see something similar in THE LONG WAY HOME, where the heroes escaped their enemies with comparative ease because the lower ranks of their opponents lacked the initiative to be suspicious, to balk at letting them go without first consulting superiors to be sure that was OK.
Ad astra! Sean
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