At last, we get some descriptions. Apart from the flyers, with which we are familiar, Flandry and Djana, trekking to the centrum, must hide from:
six-legged, dog-sized, large jawed, sensor-covered hunters;
a larger, horned, spike-tailed, caterpillar-treaded object;
bugs swarming a walking red globe with lobster claws;
a mobile battering ram fighting something shaped like a constrictor.
The defeated are neither consumed nor cannibalized but left lying, confirming that this is not an ecology.
OK. These are nightmare shapes and this part of the narrative could have been - horrified? - presented as horror. However, although I have reread A Circus Of Hells several times, I have no memory of any of these shapes. They are understated and unmemorable and there is no proper dialogue or interaction with the consciousness-level computer at the centrum so the whole Wayland incident is somewhat unsatisfactory.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The first part of A CIRCUS OF HELLS incorporated what was once a separate story, "The White King's War." That text, read independently, might be more satisfactory. But, yes, I agree, the first part of A CIRCUS OF HELLS should have been fleshed out and expanded by one or two more chapters.
That said, I still enjoy reading CIRCUS when I reread that book.
Ad astra! Sean
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