Thursday 1 March 2018

Descriptions, Including The Milky Way

"...the boat moved alone amidst a glory of stars."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Ten, p. 260.

"Behind her a viewscreen gave on crystal dark and a magnificence of stars."
-Chapter Twenty, p. 362.

Elsewhere: "...a wilderness of stars." See here.

"...frosty rush of Milky Way and dim gleam of sister galaxies..." (see also here)
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Young Flandry, pp. 367-520 AT Chapter One, p. 373.

"Now and then he saw [the planet] full, a round shield of brilliance, emblazoned on oceans azure with clouds argent above continents vert and tenne."
-op.cit., p. 371.

Hugh McCormac, who sees the Milky Way and the planet, has a "...dolichocephalic skull..." (p. 376) and also sees:

Alpha Crucis
Beta Crucis
Aldebaran
Arcuturus
Deneb
Polaris

Aldebaran and Arcturus, presumably within the Terran Empire, are like fires warming and lighting "...the camps of men..." (p. 371) whereas Deneb and Polaris, far beyond the Empire and even beyond its enemies, are, by contrast, "...a cold sight." (p. 372) McCormac is in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Empire. He is also from the planet Aeneas like Peter Berg whom we met long ago.

In The Rebel Worlds:

an unentitled prologue presents an alien viewpoint;
Chapter One presents Hugh McCormac's viewpoint;
Chapter Two at last reintroduces Dominic Flandry.

Either Flandry or the omniscient narrator reflects that Admiralty Center rises from the Rocky mountains:

"...as if again the Titans of dawn myth were piling Pelion on Ossa to scale Olympus."
-Chapter Two, p. 379.

And, if we pause to google everything, then we lose the plot!

1 comment:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul!

Here, again, we see how encyclopedic was the learning of Poul Anderson, with his competent knowledge of heraldry.

And did the Grand Survey or individual early explorers ever go as far as Deneb and Polaris?

And the glimpses we get of Admiralty Center in Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS fleshes out what we see of it in WE CLAIM THESE STARS. We see something of both the splendor and power of Admiralty Center and the dangers menacing it. Plus, given what Admiral Kheraskov said about the widow of Emperor Georgios, it's a pity we don't see her there. I can or could imagine the Empress Dowager being present with Kheraskov as Flandry was being briefed.

Sean