Thursday 25 August 2022

Opposite Numbers II

Aycharaych of Chereion
If we read Poul Anderson's Technic History not in publication order but in chronological order of fictitious events, then we first learn something of Aycharaych when Ydwyr mentions him in A Circus Of Hells, then we see the Chereionite himself in action on Aeneas in The Day Of Their Return some time before his first encounter with Captain Flandry in "Honorable Enemies."

In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Flandry converses with Aycharaych in the Crystal Moon in Jovian orbit and later captures him on an extra-solar proto-planet but the Merseians insist on a prisoner exchange. In A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Flandry converses with Aycharaych on Talwin and again later at long distance while bombarding Chereion where Aycharaych probably dies.

In The Game Of Empire, Tachwyr reflects that the Chereionite had died or at least vanished. Tachwyr, who addresses the ghost of Aycharaych as an old ally, cannot suspect that, with all the records of Chereionite culture destroyed in the bombardment, Aycharaych, even if still alive, would no longer have any motivation to work for Merseia. We would like to see a later Aycharaych.

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