"Ensign Dominic Flandry, Imperial Naval Flight Corps..."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), p. 29.
However, I would want the novel to be filmed exactly as written.
The first three chapters, but no others, each have a heading:
Evening on Terra-
Night on Starkad-
Morning on Merseia-
The obvious implication is that Terra is in decline whereas its enemy, Merseia, is ascending. (Night on Starkad is the supposed death of Flandry.) In the last Captain Flandry instalment, A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, before Flandry becomes an Admiral, Chunderban Desai confirms to Flandry that Terra is in a late stage of decline and that the Merseians probably know this and respond accordingly. However, Desai and Flandry wonder whether Merseia is also in decline and how they would know this. I think that the terminal decline of Merseia begins with Tachwyr's discouragement at the end of The Game of Empire. Too many Merseian schemes have been thwarted, mainly by Flandry. Even the aggressive Merseians can become demotivated.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I have also thought that "Evening on Terra," besides its ominous connotations for Terra, referred to the evening of an old man's life, Emperor Georgios, because he would not have many more birthdays left.
I might have used "demoralized," instead of "demotivated," for describing what Protector Tachwyr felt near the end of THE GAME OF EMPIRE!
However successful Flandry was at thwarting Merseian plots against the Empire, he could not have been the only one doing so. I recall Brechdan Ironrede saying in ENSIGN FLANDRY that there were still brave men, devoted men, shrewd men, etc., in the Empire. They too, and similarly motivated non-human agents, played a part in defending Terra.
Ad astra! Sean
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