Meanwhile, Back On Earth, Time Passes

Starfarers, 9.

The "galactic river" is "cold" in 9 and "frosty" in 40. See:

The Sea Of Space

Galactic River

In Tau Zero, The Boat Of A Million Years and Starfarers, a relativistic spaceship departs the Solar System. In Starfarers alone, the ship will return and meanwhile readers are kept informed of events on Earth and elsewhere in human space during its absence.

At the end of 9, the ship has set off and the crew are starting to settle in for the journey. We expect this narrative to continue. Instead, Chapter 10 opens:

"The town began..." (p. 77)

What town? We are back on Earth with a different set of characters. This opening paragraph summarizes some future history. The town had begun:

"...as a district in a small city." (ibid.)

However, we are told, people draw together when their way of life makes them increasingly foreign to those around them. What way of life? How are they becoming foreign? We suspect that the Kith, slower than light interstellar traders, are being introduced as their future history is incorporated into this long novel. We are told:

"As time passed, the district became a community in its own right. And it abided, while change swept to and fro around it like seas around a rock." (ibid.)

How much time? How many generations? Poul Anderson conveys the sense of more than one lifetime but, with time dilation, individuals can continue returning to Earth while generations are born and age there. Turning the page, we find that our viewpoint character is Michael Shaughnessy whom Nansen had known at Epsilon Eridani.