Death, Villains And Heroes

An apparent death - thus, a figurative death and resurrection - in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol prompted the line of thought in the previous six posts. We do not rank Brown alongside either Poul Anderson or SM Stirling but we do welcome interesting comparative ideas. Brown's villain, Mal'ach, resembles Stirling's Count Ignatieff to the extent that he practices blood sacrifice and expects to be welcomed among demons when he enters the hereafter.

Fiction requires conflict between characters. See Paces, combox. It seems that we will still be reading about heroes and villains, both old and new, into an indefinite future - provided that the world survives, of course.