The Night Face is over 100 pages in length, which is my rule of thumb criterion for differentiating a novel from a shorter work of prose fiction.
How often in sf do space travelers approach a new planet and have to discover what is peculiar about this particular planet? The answer to this question provides the plot of a story. We remember many Star Trek episodes but also many prose stories and novels by well known sf authors.
Unlike the sun of Nike in the preceding Technic History instalment, Ynis is:
"...a most ordinary main sequence star..." (I, p. 552)
Is there anything peculiar about its humanly colonized planet, Gwydion?
Gwydion:
But what of the inhabitants? First, they are not primitive. Secondly, there is no evidence of strife or crime in their society. The Commandant of the military force in the Quetzal is right to state that, in that case, he:
"'...can't guess what their common sense is like.'" (p. 550)
It sounds promising but what is beneath the surface?
2 comments:
My first reaction to the absence of crime or violence would be to suspect they weren't human beings at all! And in fact, they're mutants.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the "rationality" of the Gwydiona breaks down every few years when a certain plant flowers.
Ad astra! Sean
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