(urth) This week in Google Alerts

[Lee Berman]

>Sergei Soloviev: I mostly agree with the idea, but what human sacrifice by Baldanders do 
>you mean?  For Baldanders, it is scientific research, even if he takes some humans 
>to open and may forget them on the operation table (like the poor girl in the tower).

Apologies. I was being deliberately broad in my use of the word "sacrifice" to add some 
color to my post as well as make a point.
 
Yes, there is the half-Pia in Baldanders' castle and many other prisoners there. Dr. Talos
explains that Baldanders keeps such "rubbish" around for "spare parts".
 
So, in a manner, Baldanders is sacrificing these local natives not to the gods but to his
own scientific research and thus to himself and his own immortality (which is the sole purpose 
of his research).
 
Considering what we learn of Baldanders' fate, of godlings on the Whorl and Cilinia/Scylla (and
in my opinion, Echidna and The Mother) it may actually be a sacrifice to the creation of a god, 
in Baldanders' view. 
 
(Wolfe seems more inclined to view humans who grow into giants and then sea gods to be more like 
monsters/demons than gods)