I am not about to reread much of this story this late (just back from Zen group where there was a visiting monk) but the opening paragraphs set a scene:
the town of Anchor on the High America plateau now has ten thousand residents, over 50% children;
there are brick and concrete buildings as well as ground cars and trucks;
the oldest colonists who had come from Earth are by now very few - all or most of the pioneers that we read about in earlier instalments must be dead;
Dan Coffin has been settled at Lake Moondance in the lowlands for thirty-five Rustumite years, twenty Terrestrial;
his wife, Eva, has just given birth to their fourth child who will be unable to live with them in the lowlands.
Well, that defines a human problem in an sf setting so it suffices for this evening. What does the title suggest about a solution?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
IIRC Dan and Eva Coffin had five, not four children, but one of the first four died soon after birth. They were unusually fortunate that three of those four were able to live in the lowlands of Rustum.
"A Fair Exchange" is about how the Constitutionalists of Rustum had to adjust their beliefs about economics to changing circumstances as the colony grew.
Ad astra! Sean
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