We last saw Dominic Flandry in Ardazirho captivity three posts ago. He has successfully manipulated his enemies into capturing him, teaching him their language and, now, reuniting him with Kit with whom he can plan their next move. Svantozik thinks that he can control Flandry through the latter's supposed feelings toward Kit. Flandry has acted his part well:
"'It is no concern of yours!' Flandry sat up and shouted it. 'I will hear no more! Say what else you will, but keep your filthy snout out of my own life!'" (XII, p. 82)
Flandry's acting skills rival those of van Rijn.
When Kit and he embrace, she whispers:
"'That debuggin' unit is perfectly good, Dominic.'" (XIII, p. 84)
Flandry's mission continues.
8 comments:
Poul brings out the good point that his enemies don't have much real-life experience with humans, or other species alien to them. Their knowledge is theoretical only, and hence someone who -does- have lots of experience with nonhumans is better placed to manipulate them.
Flandry's opposite number is clever but not experienced enough to see what's happening.
This one reads a lot like something by Fleming, actually; high adventure and a bleak setting.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Dave!
Mr. Stirlng: I agree, Svantozik was wily and shrewd, his problem being that he did not have enough experience to deal with Flandry. And he was wise enough to know that.
Dave: Truthfully, I prefer the Flandry stories over the James Bond books. It was a mistake of Fleming to change the opponents faced by Bond from SMERSH/USSR to SPECTRE.
Ad astra! Sean
For pure entertainment value, both have their place; in terms of anything deeper, Anderson seems slightly less cynical than Fleming, and given their life experiences, perhaps that's not surprising. Fleming, although not an actual combatant, had seen action (her was an observer at Dieppe, for example) and certainly had real-life responsibilities vastly greater than anything Anderson dealt with professionally.
Kaor, Dave!
But that's not relevant to my dissatisfaction with the later Bond books, due to me finding SPECTRE an unconvincing opponent.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, sure, but sometimes one has to deal with the author's desire to sell in multiple markets. ;)
The whole "the universe is so small that two species will fight over it" frame for space opera is pretty unconvincing, as well, but if one uses that as a sieve, pretty much nothing in what passes for SF is going to work as entertainment, is it?
If you make the top speed of your starships limited, the part of the universe that is practically reachable would small enough to fight over. It takes a lot of squinting to make that look plausible, but maybe it can be done.
Maybe two species with STL starships expand & bump into each other. I could see some conflict occurring at solar systems they reach at about the same time. However, unless one species has much higher tech whoever is already occupying a solar system will have a *big* advantage over any invader.
Kaor, Dave and Jim!
Dave: I would need to look up why Fleming changed the opponents faced by Bond and the Secret Service from the KGB/SMERSH to SPECTRE. I hope it wasn't because he wanted to avoid annoying leftists in the UK still clinging to delusions about the USSR!
And I still believe it is not impossible for two or more intelligent species, if biochemically similar enough to desire the same types of planets, to fight each other for them. Esp. if we assume a FTL enabling them to meet/clash at not too impossible distances. And that seems to have been Anderson's view as well, in a text I quoted not too long ago from Chapter I of A CIRCUS OF HELLS.
Jim: I basically agree, trying to fight a war over interstellar distances with only STL would be much harder to do than with FTL. But we see Anderson experimenting with that idea in "Time Lag," when two human colonized planets fought each other like that. But that could be a disaster for whoever started the war. If the planet which was attacked had an advanced technology, the long time lags between attacks by the aggressor might give the defenders the time needed for building up their own military and the means for defeating their opponents.
Ad astra! Sean
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