"'So, it is given to me to know how the men of years to come will think of me...
"'...or my deeds and name would have been known, if things had gone forward as they did in the past your age remembers...
"'And this Walker has robbed me of!
"'And much of what Walker knows is the fruit of my people's minds and hands?'"
-SM Stirling, On The Oceans Of Eternity (New York, 2000), Chapter Twenty-Three, p. 473.
Very good: an understanding of time travel, of causality violation and of historical progress plus the beginning of a motive to rebel against William Walker, King of Men! Arnstein makes good use of his time as a captive.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
One thought I had was to wonder what might have happened if William Walker had taken Odikweos totally into his confidence. I mean first, by telling and then convincing him that Walker was from the future--and then giving him copies of the ILIAD and ODYSSEY. Would Odikweos have blamed Walker for depriving him of his glory and fame? After all, Walker could have pointed out that both he and the Nantucketers had already changed the world, and aborted the timeline that would have led to the ILIAD/ODYSSEY. Odikweos would still have been grieved but probably would not have blamed Walker if the King of Men had been up front about the true story from the beginning.
Sean
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