Tuesday 21 July 2020

Chase The Morning

I have acquired a copy of this edition of Chase The Morning by Michael Scott Rohan. This book comes highly recommended by SM Stirling and Sean M. Brooks. (Addendum: see combox.) Apparently, there are literary cross-references and opportunities for comparison with Poul Anderson. The title is extracted from the line, "Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea," in a poem by James Elroy Flecker, also quoted by both Anderson and Stirling. For previous blog references either to Rohan's novel or to Flecker's poem, see here.

However, I have yet to get into reading Chase The Morning and am still involved with Poul Anderson's contributions to Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars. This might lead to reading the Man-Kzin Wars series as a whole. Anderson's first contribution introduced Ulf Markham who shows up in one (?) (later: not just one) later-written installment set earlier. It will be interesting to compare the styles of different contributions, to learn how the installments are distributed through the Wars period and also to find out if a line is to be drawn between canonical and non-canonical contributions.

Today is Sheila's birthday so again blogging time will be limited.

8 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Happy Birthday to Mrs. Shackley! And I hope you are both well.

Let me correct a misunderstanding, I've never read Michael Scott Rohan's CHASE THE MORNING. So many books to read and it's impossible to read them all!

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

OK. Thanks. You recommended that other guy, Myers Myers.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, I did, SILVERLOCK. Which I hope you will like.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

For Sheila's birthday, in less than two hours from now, we will have a small, socially distanced family gathering in a close friend's spacious garden in walking distance from here with food and drink provided by Aileen.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

A bit of a downer, the need for social distancing. But I hope you all have fun.

And I read of how Oxford University has been doing research on a coronavirus vaccine which seems to be promising, from what I saw on the news. I hope that is true!

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Happy birthday from me too! And I also recommend SILVERLOCK. It's a bit more self-consciously literary than CHASE THE MORNING, but they're both very good in their ways.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

I have just started CHASE THE MORNING and will quote it.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And there's also the works of Avram Davidson, who also wrote very "literary" stories, many of which pleased me. Such as JOYLEG and the stories about Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy, set in the wonderfully named Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania. I would recommend these Davidson works to Paul.

Ad astra! Sean