IX: The Fall of Nu-Yok explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Technology and Warfare

  The chapter contrasts advanced Han ray technology with American inertron rockets and hand-to-hand weapons, showing the evolution of warfare.

• Degeneration and Decadence

  San-Lan's courtly detachment and his casual discussion of eliminating the narrator highlight the moral decay of the Han ruling class.

• Resistance and Rebellion

  The American tribes, once hunted, now rise up and destroy the Han city of Nu-Yok, fulfilling the narrator's earlier predictions.

• Utopia and Dystopia

  The gleaming city of Nu-Yok is reduced to a smoking crater, illustrating the fragility of Han technological utopia.

Characters to notice

• Unknown Narrator

  The narrator reflects on his status as a prisoner and honored guest of San-Lan, and later participates in the battle as leader of the Wyomings.

• San-Lan

  San-Lan receives the devastating news of Nu-Yok's fall, reacts with fury and despair, and threatens the narrator with eventual elimination.

• The Hans

  The Hans are defeated at Nu-Yok, with their fleet destroyed and ground forces reduced to 10,000 survivors who are hunted in the Adirondacks.

• The Americans

  The Americans launch a successful attack on Nu-Yok using inertron rockets, then pursue and destroy the Han survivors in hand-to-hand combat.

• Lui-Lok

  Lui-Lok commits suicide by leaping into a ray after the rockets penetrate the ray-wall of Nu-Yok.

• Lip-Hung

  Lip-Hung takes command of the survivors and sends a plea for a rescue fleet, which San-Lan refuses.

• Handan

  Handan commands the American forces, barking orders into his ultrophone and directing the attack on the Han airfleet.

• The Wyomings

  The Wyomings, under the narrator's command, take the most terrible toll on the Hans using bayonet guns in hand-to-hand fighting.

Key passages

• “My position among the Hans, in this period, was a peculiar one. I was at once a closely guarded prisoner and an honored guest.”

  The narrator is simultaneously a prisoner under heavy guard and a respected guest in the Han court.

  Establishes the narrator's ambiguous status and foreshadows his eventual elimination.

• “Heaven-Born, the Nu-Yok fleet has been destroyed, the city is in ruins, and the newly formed ground brigades, reduced to 10,000 men, have taken refuge in the hills of Ron-Dak (the Adirondacks) where they are being pressed hard by the tribesmen, who have surrounded them.”

  The Han intelligence officer reports the complete defeat at Nu-Yok, with the fleet gone and survivors surrounded in the Adirondacks.

  This is the pivotal moment that triggers San-Lan's rage and the chapter's action.

• “I give him and his 10,000 to the tribesmen! They are of no use to us now!”

  San-Lan coldly abandons the surviving Han troops, refusing to send a rescue fleet.

  Demonstrates San-Lan's ruthless pragmatism and the disposable nature of his soldiers.

• “It was all over in a few seconds. Nu-Yok had ceased to exist, and the waters of the bay and the rivers were pouring into the vast hole where a moment before had been the rocky strata beneath lower Manhattan.”

  The city of Nu-Yok is utterly obliterated by inertron rockets in seconds, leaving only a water-filled crater.

  Highlights the devastating power of the American atomic weapons and the complete destruction of the Han stronghold.

• “It was my own unit of Wyomings, equipped with bayonet guns not unlike the rifles of the First World War, that took the most terrible toll from the Hans.”

  The narrator's Wyoming unit, using bayonet guns similar to WWI rifles, inflicts the heaviest casualties on the Hans.

  Shows the narrator's personal involvement in the battle and the effectiveness of his troops.