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For a "Custodian" of Mankind's lost sciences, the old geezer fell prey to a very erratic emotions...... To blame the son of his rival and doom his daughter to an early death. The non happy ending was refreshing.
It isn't difficult to see why so many great authors, from Bradbury to Wolfe to Lovecraft hinlmself, gush over his writing. Eyeing my copy of Return of the Sorcerer after this reading of yours. Thank you.
The concept he's describing at the beginning, of like, a science monastery built to withstand apocalyptic events, is also the core concept in Neil Stephenson's most recent novel Anathem
It also bears a lot of resemblance to Asimov's Foundation, only there it was a planetary colony of scientists, meant to keep human knowledge alive during the collapse of the empire and then to shorten the following dark ages to merely a thousand years instead of tenthousand. At some point the Foundation settlement does turn itself into a religion, though, and educates people from surrounding planets in the use of their machines. The religious aspect is meant to keep the control of the knowledge in the hands of the Foundation.
