Pele II

Poul Anderson imagines yet another unexpected hazard in a strange planetary system. As a gas giant of ten Jovian masses falls toward its sun, Pele, planetary convulsions spew iron into the upper atmosphere where Pelean ultraviolet splits molecules into ionized atoms. Next, the chaotically interacting Pelean and planetary magnetic fields form vortices that pull ferromagnetic atoms into charged pellets which, accelerated to escape velocity, are thrown like shotgun fire into space where they riddle an exploratory kzinti spaceship.

Anderson understands three kinds of psychology:

human beings who know the kzinti are unwilling to attempt a rescue;
a human being of good will who does not know the enemy does attempt a rescue;
a kzin can only attempt to kill his monkey rescuers...

Prose And Other Media

It is a privilege to be able to appreciate imaginative fiction of high quality in different genres and media. I must apologize to readers of this blog because reading Poul Anderson's "Pele" has been interrupted by seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which Samuel L Jackson plays Nick Fury, and this has led to rereading The Ultimates, the earlier graphic work in which Nick Fury was drawn to look like Samuel L Jackson (and said that he should be played by him!). (This in turn has led to a couple of posts on another blog.)

Back to "Pele": Poul Anderson had an endless ability to create extraordinary astronomical events for his space-traveling characters to observe and explore. Here, a gas giant ten times as massive as Jupiter falls into its sun. As the planet spirals inward, held together by its massive gravitational field, it fills its Roche lobe. I had to google this phrase, hence the attached image. Scientific observers speculate that material from the planet will spiral into the sun for decades or centuries until the reduced planetary core explodes.

Anderson also often showed dangerous unexpected events, usually explosions, in unfamiliar conditions, then explained them. Here, a smooth ancient asteroid from the outer system explodes when approached because the spacecraft's gravity polarizer volatilizes its metastable agglomerate of chondrules and ices. I have yet to finish reading the story but must now turn in for an early start tomorrow. 

Pele

Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Man-Kzin Wars (New York, 2002), pp. 3-95.

Two villainous organizations in popular fiction, SPECTRE and THRUSH, execute their own failures. This tradition goes right back to SMERSH executing Le Chiffre, the villain of the first James Bond novel. The kzinti observe the same custom except that their failures die fighting. The High Admiral whose schemes our heroes foiled in the previous story has willingly faced wild beasts in the Patriarchal Arena, but now a member of the same house wants to regain the estate as well as to gain a full name and the right to breed. (What an apology for a rational species!)

Once before, a kzin on his home planet had to use an English word in conversation because there was no exact equivalent in the Hero's Tongue. On that occasion, the English word was government. Now it happens again, this time with the phrase, "'...purely scientific.'" (p. 6) The kzinti, aggressive feline hunters, disparage "monkey curiosity."

Our former heroes do not transport the exploratory expedition in this third story but Peter Nordbo's daughter, Tyra, whom we know, does join the expedition and is accompanied by one Craig Raden, so maybe this story will focus on her and him? (I am only just starting to read Chapter 3 of 17.)