It is revealed that Jaan was a false prophet in a very real sense - technologically possessed by an agent of Merseia - and it is simultaneously announced that Ivar Frederiksen, heir to the Firstmanship of Ilion, who had tried to lead a rebellion, will now make his peace with the occupation forces of the Terran Empire. Will even these two devastating developments be enough to derail the movement for Aenean independence that we have seen gathering momentum throughout this novel? I would not think so. There will be further years of turmoil ahead and we need another novel especially Sector Alpha Crucis is close to the Domain of Ythri and we also want to know what has been happening on Avalon. Poul Anderson's Technic History needed to have been two or three times its finished length. JRR Tolkien said that The Lord Of The Rings was "too short" and I agree - although lengthy, it feels rushed - and the Technic History is definitely too short.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But Anderson allowed for those future difficulties when he had Commissioner Desai warning Ivar that making peace with the Empire and working to persuade Aeneans to accept that would come with costs. Costs such as loss of some friends and being willing to make inglorious compromises. And it seems that Ivar, and those who came to agree with him succeeded, for we see no mention of serious trouble from Sector Alpha Crucis in the later stories set in Flandry's lifetime.
Tolkien was right, THE LORD OF THE RINGS was too short and needed more fulling out. He did manage to give his readers an immense amount of more information in the appendices to LOTR.
I have commented now and then on gaps/lacunae in the Technic series I wished Anderson had given us more information, filling them in. E.g., what happened to Leon Ammon in later years, after A CIRCUS OF HELLS?
And we could have been told more about the Widow of Georgios, mentioned by Admiral Kheraskov in THE REBEL WORLDS.
Ad astra! Sean
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