Like Hanno, Svoboda must end a relationship with a mortal now that the immortals are making contact and getting organized. Her lover knows that she is mysterious and hides something. The best way to keep a secret is to prevent it from even being known that there is a secret but that seems to be impossible. She tells him that she is going to the US for confidential scientific research but to say even that much is to concede that there is something that she is concealing.
This sub-chapter could have been a passage in a contemporary novel about personal relationships. Poul Anderson could have written such fiction but would we have wanted to read it? Anderson reflects on time and history through the perspectives of time travellers and immortals. By living through thousands of years - even a million? - Hanno stands for humanity enduring through time.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think much of most contemporary, "mainstream" novels. Once in a rare while I come across something that pleases me. Such as Tom Wolfe's A MAN IN FULL. That one I loved!
Ad astra! Sean
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment