Some Minor Details

I thought that I had found a small inconsistency in Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire but careful rereading showed that I had not. Diana Crowfeather is on Zacharia Island where:

"...the sight of the Hellas peaks from her south window was breathtaking."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 374,

and:

"Southward, vision was bounded by the Hellene snowpeaks, softly aflame." (p. 385)

The map of the northern part of Zacharia visited by Diana and her companions shows the Averroes River descending through the Mencius Hills into Nacre Bay but does not show any Hellas or Hellene mountains. However, the answer is simply that, if these mountains are further south but high enough, then their peaks are visible above the Mencius Hills. And that was made clear when the characters arrived on Zacharia, at the airfield on the bay:

"Through [the Mencius Hills] flowed the Averroes River, glacier-fed by the Hellas Mountains further south." (p. 368)

In other words, Anderson has covered all the angles. On a first or even a second reading of the novel, I had not consulted the map and accepted the text at face value so that, if "Hellas" mountains were referred to, then I did not question them. But, whenever details are questioned, the text has the answers. Anderson has created a consistent environment extending beyond the boundaries of his maps and also beyond the activities of his characters. Another example is the seven other consistently named planets in the Patrician System.

There is also some humor. Targovi wants their small group to remain on Zacharia for intelligence-gathering purposes whereas Axor, whose purpose is merely scholarly, realizes that they must leave soon:

"'I should not lament my departure'...'Ahead of me, while this mortal frame lasts, lie pilgrimages to those planets about which I have learned, to the greater glory of God.'
"'Well good,' mumbled Targovi. 'Know you when we must leave?'" (p. 403)

"Well good," mumbles the pagan Targovi when his innocent companion enthuses about the greater glory of God!

Axor is ordained in the Galilean Order (another joke, surely?) but has taken his Christian name from a Jesuit missionary and quotes the Jesuit motto which, in Latin, is Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. If I may interject both a personal note and a wider literary note at this point, I will add that, like James Joyce, I have unhappy memories of education by Jesuits but that, unlike Joyce, I have subsequently sought guidance from the clergy of a different and older tradition.

Back to Anderson's humor. Axor on Diana:

"'...I have begun to fear for that maiden's virtue.'
"[Targovi] choked back a yowl of laughter." (p. 404)

Laughter seems appropriate. Is Diana still a "maiden"? Yes, surprisingly. But anything that occurs between her and her male Zacharian host is their business and no one else's, certainly not Fr Axor's. (Incidentally, we are told that his species, the Wodenites, are uninterested in sex except when on heat so that celibacy is easier for them.)