The Characters In The Game Of Empire

Diana Crowfeather is the central character of Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire (IN Flandry's Legacy, New York, 2012) but Targovi the Tigery is the real hero of the intelligence operation that exposes the rebel Olaf Magnassun's link to the Merseians. It is Targovi who asks questions, becomes suspicious, follows the trail and confirms the suspicions despite the opposition of superiors supporting the rebellion. For this reason, Targovi, with his alien senses and abilities, becomes the view point character of several long passages.

Axor in his quest for Foredweller ruins is pushed from pillar to post - from Imhotep to Daedalus, then from Lulach to Zacharia - as cover for Targovi's intelligence operation but nevertheless makes significant progress in the quest and, by his physical bulk alone, is crucial to the trio's escape, with the stolen evidence and database, from Zacharia.

Anderson had presented a straightforward and uncomplicated account of how, in order to steal the data, Targovi scaled a wall, entered a building, killed a Merseian, severed his head (as evidence), downloaded the database and exited by the same route. The escape from the island is even more straightforward. The dinosauroid Axor, carrying and sheltering the gun-wielding Diana, crashes through a fence, runs onto the space field and fights resisting Zacharians while the loping Targovi burns through the lock of a Merseian spaceship, kills its occupants and steals the ship in which the trio escape.

Earlier, I had shared Targovi's amusement when Axor - a Catholic priest, although Diana is not of his flock - had expressed "'...fear for that maiden's virtue.'" (p. 404) Surely Diana is not still a virgin? Yes, she is. She avoids dependent relationships and unplanned pregnancy and has spent much time among Tigeries. She gets close to Kukulkan Zachary but comes to regard him as an "alien" when she learns of the Zacharians' collusion with the Merseians. (p. 424)