"Empires rose and fell among the stars."
-Sandra Miesel IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, July 2018), p. 194.
Why does Miesel write this? There has been no mention of empires thus far. However, several other species are interstellar travelers and they include raptor cultures. In any case, "The Chapter Ends" describes Sol City, the ruined former capital of the First Empire. How many Empires have there been? It seems that the original aims of the Psychotechnic Institute have been lost and forgotten as if they had never been - except that a team of psychotechnicians from the Galactic centre supervises the evacuation of Earth in "The Chapter Ends." Eventually, this science of mankind has been rediscovered and successfully applied.
"The Chapter Ends" excels in its descriptive passages which we will consider next.
2 comments:
Alas, we now know galactic centers are radiation hellscapes centered on gigantic spinning black holes...
Kaor, Paul!
I would balk less at including "Chapter" in the Psychotechnic series if the powers wielded by the Galactics were not so fantastic!
Ad astra! Sean
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