An outcome of a fictional narrative may be implied rather than stated. Thus, at the end of Conan Doyle's
The Hound of the Baskervilles, it is inferred that the villain, Stapleton, has perished in the Grimpen Mire. Because this outcome is merely inferred, it would be possible without inconsistency to write a sequel in which Stapleton turns out after all to have survived his panicked flight through the Mire. However, one of the many film dramatizations of
The Hound... shows Stapleton sinking into the Mire, thus precluding any sequel to that film with Stapleton surviving.
In Poul Anderson's A Stone in Heaven, Dominic Flandry is sixty-one and expects to have his servant, Chives, for another ten years with luck. In The Game of Empire, Flandry is nearly seventy and there is no mention of Chives even when Flandry welcomes his wife, Miriam, back to their Archopolis apartment. I think that it is implied that Chives has died. This conclusion could have been contradicted by a later novel or story showing Chives still alive but there was no further instalment set during Flandry's lifetime. In a sense, therefore, the question whether Chives is still alive by then remains open but it becomes inceasingly unlikely. In our timeline, the mere passage of time means that anyone who was active during World War II either is dead by now or soon will be.
Almost certainly Aycharaych died when Flandry had ordered the bombardment of Chereion in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows. In The Game of Empire, Tachwyr speculates about Aycharaych's possible survival:
"...Aycharaych died when the Dennitzans bombarded his planet. At least, he vanished; you could never be sure of anything about the Chereionite."
-Poul Anderson, The Game of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER SIX, p. 267.
Tachwyr goes on to assure Aycharaych's ghost that the (Merseian) Race will seek the destiny that the God has set for it. We know, although Tachwyr does not, that, even if Aycharaych has survived, he will no longer have any motivation to serve the Roidhunate - unless his motivation became simply revenge against Flandry and the Terran Empire? I would prefer to imagine him seeking other goals like maybe assisting Axor's researches into the Ancients/Elders/Chereionites.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I missed that, if you saw even a possible implication in THE GAME OF EMPIRE that Chives had died by the time of that story.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is only that the best part of ten years have passed and that Chives is not mentioned in circumstances where he should have been if he were still around. It is only an implication.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I've thought of THE GAME OF EMPIRE occurring only five or six years after A STONE IN HEAVEN. But even that could fit into what you suggested. His total absence from GAME does imply he Had died during those years.
But the simplest real world solution to this puzzle is Anderson forgetting to think of Chives. I wish I had thought of asking him about Chives in the long letter I sent him about GAME!
Ad astra! Sean
That cover is anachronistic, btw. The double-handed pistol grip wasn't used in Victorian times -- not until quite recently, in fact. Dave Drake (an expert pistol shot) has mentioned that he was taught the single-handed grip.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that reminded me of how the NY police detective in DRAKON had nothing against the double handed grip--he was simply used to the single handed grip.
Ad astra! Sean
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