"'[The computer] didn't bother coloring the squares or the pieces, knowing quite well which was which. That's why I didn't see at once we're actually on a giant chessboard.'" (p. 256)
Although the computer would not need colors, a film-maker would assume that a chessboard and its pieces should be colored. But they should not be. The cinema audience should see exactly what Flandy and Djana see: very wide squares on rough terrain with occasional strange objects moving around. Some cinema goers might recognize giant chess pieces.
The revelation comes just over half way down p. 256;
p. 257 is just over half blank, being the end of a chapter;
p. 258 is only two thirds text, being the beginning of a chapter;
Flandry and Djana leave Wayland just less than half way down p. 260.
Thus, we are unceremoniously whisked away from Wayland.
In the centrum on pp. 258-260, Djana sleeps and recuperates, served by robots, while Flandry supervises the discrete repair of his ship, to conceal what has happened, and conducts a technical discussion with the prime computer - so we are told - and that is it: a telegramic conclusion to Flandry's adventure on Wayland.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Like you, I would prefer that any filmed version of A CIRCUS OF HELLS not show the giant chess board and pieces used by the Wayland AI as colored.
If this book has any flaws, it's in the Wayland section being too short and brusquely concluded. We should have seen more of Citizen Ammon and the Wayland AI.
Ad astra!
Nothing that happens after he gets to the centrum is plot-relevant, really. Poul was working under tight wordage constraints at that point in his career -- SF novels were rarely more than about 75K words back then.
Word constraint explains it.
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