"Anse and Janazik fought side by side, human brawn and Khazaki swiftness, and the corpses were heaped where they went." (p. 288)
This sentence exactly mirrors ERB's descriptions of John Carter and Tars Tarkas fighting on Barsoom, generating heaps of corpses. In both cases, a Terrestrial is on a planet where swords are the main weapons used for personal combat.
In his Dominic Flandry series, Poul Anderson twice created situations where Flandry fought with a sword even though he represented a high tech interstellar civilization. That was in the period when the Flandry series was pulp magazine space opera. Fortunately, it became more than that.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
On Scotha Flandry confounded Prince Cerdic by his unexpected skill in using a sword. Because SCIENTIFIC fencing was popular on Terra. And it was customary at the Sartaz'z court on Alfzar for his guests to wear swords. Not because it was NECESSARY given the advanced technology available, but as an antiquarian survival. And I find both to be plausible rationalizations.
Ad astra! Sean
Odd things happen.
Eg., there was a British officer in WW2 who carried a longbow and claymore, and killed Germans with both.
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