FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #1, Spoiler Edition

[krait]

If you have discussion points you wish to bring up but which include spoilers, please post them here. Then link your comment in the general post, so those who want to avoid being spoiled can do so!

Comments

[pebblerocker]

(Are we spoiling for just the rest of the first novel here, or the whole series? This comment has to do with the third and fourth books IIRC.)

I note that already, 122 years later, Ian thinks of the planet as "the place Taylor found for them" -- already mythologising Taylor as a great hero, saviour of them all, when from what we saw in the first part it was other people who searched out and chose the best place to head for as an escape; they just pointed Taylor at it and he took them there. Later in the series Taylor becomes even more of a heroic figure, and his children are something like demigods. Interesting that station-builders as well as ship-folk think that way.

[cheyinka]

I didn't pick up on that! That's really interesting, yes - of course with so many people dying or becoming seriously ill from radiation, the story probably couldn't get corrected once it got started...

[krait]

It may even have been extremely convenient for the Pilots' Guild to encourage that version -- after all, if you're placing yourselves in the position of overlords, it's always nice to have a mythic founding figure to point to: "Naturally the Pilots's Guild should be in charge! Don't you believe in the descendents/personal proteges of Taylor The Great? Don't they have precedent and clear credentials for leadership?"

[pebblerocker]

That sounds exactly what they would have done, yes.