Andersonian action: a page and a half present a detailed account of a sword battle between guards and loyalists. It is probably two full pages in the smaller format previous edition. However, here and now, most books are boxed for a house move so any such comparisons are on hold, indefinitely.
"Anse and Janavik fought side by side, human brawn and Khazaki swiftness, and the corpses were heaped where they went." (p. 288)
That does sound like ERB's John Carter and Tars Tarkas: a man and his non-human friend on the latter's planet; swords; heaped corpses.
Do we need any other details? Blood and rain mingle between cobblestones. (There would not have been rain on Barsoom. Mars is, of course, a dry planet where canals conduct water from the poles.)
I once saw a comic strip adaptation of John Carter with two green Martians addressing each other as "Tars" and "Tarkas." My first thought was that that was wrong because Tars Tarkas is a single person. Then I remembered how a green Martian acquires a second name. They also laugh at the sight of bloodshed and want to die fighting. The Khazaki are not as warlike as green Martians.
2 comments:
Note that abilities in hand-to-hand combat do vary a great deal.
Kaor. Paul!
Anderson, like Stirling, gives us more grimly realistic depictions of combat.
Ad astra! Sean
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