5HC: woodhenge without abos

If there are no abos, really, and never were, then how to explain the astronomical observatory--the trees predate the French colonists by around 120 years. Maybe they grew that way naturally: link to Le Guin's novel EYE OF THE HERON, which has a botanical detail about alien trees that detonate to spread their seeds, iirc . . . in any event, they naturally form circles of trees, or woodhenges, which makes the forest look rather like chainmail from above. (This had no bearing on EYE OF THE HERON that I could see at the time, but it could very well be a cryptic ref to 5HC, just as Le Guin's "Nine Lives" has the open ref to Zelazny's DREAM MASTER, and Wilhelm's WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG has the veiled ref to 5HC . . . ) =mantis=

To pick a nit, 127 (Annese) years is the age of the trees when they were cut down, not when the French first arrived. When I first read your post, I assumed that the observatory was proof positive that the Annese existed. But upon rereading the passage in 5HC, the "observatory" became frustratingly indefinite, like all the other traces of the Annese. Did Marsch actually see 402 stumps, evenly spaced in a circle? If so, that would be proof that the Annese existed. Mantis's suggestion of trees "exploding" their seeds might account for trees growing naturally in a circle, but not for their being evenly spaced, or for their number equalling the number of days in a year; and there should also be other "tree circles," but we don't here of any. (But if things are so clearcut, it's hard to see how anyone could maintain that the "observatory" is "possibly of natural growth" (208, Ace pb).) But an equally plausible reading is that Marsch only saw, say, a dozen stumps and rotten trees, and from this extrapolated a ring of 402, prompted by Victor's father's lore. In that case what Marsch sees could have come about naturally, Marsch's beliefs notwithstanding (I don't think Marsch is a fool, but he is predisposed to believe in the existence of the Annese). I'm becoming more and more convinced that the existence of the Annese is unknowable, and was meant to be unknowable. --Adam

You are right! And the trees were not likely cut down by the first starship crew. It was done by the settlers (aka colonists), and the first wave of settlers could not have come any sooner than 42 years (radio time plus NAFAL transit time) after French discovery. 42-127 = -85, or 85 years before French discovery. Rather than circa 120 French discovery. Would the colonists cut down all the trees in their first year on the ground, or, like the stripping of the outer shells of the pyramids to build Cairo (historical echo), would it happen much later? Marsch is reporting in year 180: it is technically possible that the observatory was planted by the first starship crew in the year 0, and then was not harvested as lumber until the colony grew large enough to have such demand, around year 127. Then the stumps would have 53 years to rot and decay before Marsch sees them. IIRC year 127 would be close to the year that Number Four was born (FL 135). But still after the War (FL 100). =mantis= Sirius Fiction booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley 31 copies of "Snake's-hands" until OP! http://www.siriusfiction.com/