Tuesday 30 March 2021

Comparing Heroines

In Ian Fleming's Dr No, Honeychile Rider is an orphan, lives alone in the cellars of a ruined great house in Jamaica, befriends animals that come in from the fields, becomes involved in James Bond's investigation of Dr No and later, as Honeychile Wilder, has two children by a Philadelphia doctor.

In Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire, Diana Crowfeather is an orphan, sleeps alone in a ruinous temple on Imhotep, is a friend of Tigeries, becomes involved in Targovi's investigation of the Magnusson rebellion and later, we think, joins Intelligence with Targovi, possibly still using Axor's quest as a cover.

Just one of those quick breakfast posts. Maybe more later.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

So far I've read/reread CASINO ROYALE, LIVE AND LET DIE, and MOONRAKER, and I have noticed some points of similarity James Bond had with the EARLIER pub. Dominic Flandry stories. E.g., they are serious professionals at Intelligence work, they both like to dress well, they are both gourmands, and they both smoke far too much!

And Flandry and Bond both have something else in common: while having no trouble just finding women to merely have sex with, they were both often unlucky about finding a woman to be SERIOUS with. And they both lost a woman they came to REALLY care about at the hands of enemies.

Of course there are real and major differences between Flandry and Bond. I consider Flandry far more deeply well read and cultured than 007. Also, we see Flandry at times showing more compassion even to enemies than Bond does. And of course Flandry operates on a far vaster stage setting than does 007.

Ad astra! Sean