Talwin in summer is hot. When Flandry disembarks, heat envelops, enters and becomes him and everything else. And this heat, at least 80 C, is announced by:
"A furnace wind..." (p. 275)
- which:
"...roared dully across the ferrocrete, which wavered in his seared gaze." (ibid.)
Of course. The wind always comments so, on overheated Talwin, Aeolus (I now imagine him as between the universes) summons a "furnace wind" for the occasion.
Talwin swings within 0.87 AU's of Siekh but then recedes to 2.62. Summer and winter are warring extremes. This is another of Poul Anderson's planetary systems where a past cosmic event, like maybe another star passing through, has disrupted orbits and distorted planetary environments.
Merseian scientists study Talwinians who have adapted to these annually opposite conditions but I wonder whether intelligent beings who can range between the stars are likely become so interested in the life patterns on a single backward planet?
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Like most Americans I'm used to Fahrenheit when it comes to temperatures. I googled and 80 degrees Celsius is a stunning 176 F. It's no wonder humans and Merseians would need protective heat suits in the appalling summers of Talwin!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Also, assuming FTL tech, it's not so implausible to think some scientists, xenologists, would take an interest in the "life patterns" of the residents of backward planets. And the natives of Talwin, using estivation and hibernation to survive the summers and winters, would fascinate some scientists.
Ad astra! Sean
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