This story begins and ends with two men playing chess.
"K-B2.
"Q-K7. 'Check,' said Roy Pearson." (p. 151)
"Before long, Pearson had recovered enough self-possession to suggest a game of chess." (p. 179)
Between these start- and end-points, much occurs. No less than six men of different nationalities interact with each other and with the Jovian environment. There are technical problems which have technical solutions although there is also and always the human element. An author must know a lot of science to write this kind of science fiction. The only sf premise is the gyrogravitics. Everything else is physics. One-man "scoopships" scoop methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, water vapour, ethylene, benzene, formaldedehyde and other organics out of the Jovian atmosphere.
There is an Andersonian moment of realization when Master Pilot Charles de Gaulle d'Andilly springs up, knocks over his chair and shouts:
"'Mon Dieu!'" (p. 171)
However, on this occasion, precedent is broken because d'Andilly explains his rescue plan to his colleagues immediately instead of leaving it to us readers to learn what the plan is when we see it implemented.
D'Andilly is one of a kind of competent, hard-working, hard-living, hard-drinking Andersonian characters and sings the same French song as Piet Van Sarawak in Anderson's "Delenda Est" (which has a Latin title).
No comments:
Post a Comment