Ian Fleming stated that SMERSH HQ was in 13, Stretenka Ulitsa, Moscow, so a reader sent him a photograph of the building to show that it wasn't;
much of North America is "Montival";
Nicholas van Rijn has a penthouse in Chicago Integrate (see here), a mansion on Kilimanjaro (see here) and an office in Djakarta (see here);
Terran Admiralty Center is in the Rockies (see here) but we are not told where the capital, Archopolis (see here), is.
I suppose that future and alternative geographies differ from allegedly real geographies. Fleming claimed in an Author's Note that his information was accurate. But, in terms of literary geography, SMERSH HQ is exactly where Ian Fleming says it is.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Because of its evocative history as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, I like to think Constantinople was renamed "Archopolis" and chosen to be the capital of the Terran Empire. Also, that would place Archopolis as much as it might be possible in the center of the Afro/Eurasian landmass, the largest areas of land on Earth.
And I tend to think of Admiralty Center as being built in that section of the Rocky Mountains in the US state of Colorado.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Maybe Admiralty Center is at Cheyenne Mountain, the old NORAD complex. At least a substantial part of Admiralty Center is underground, and most of Cheyenne Mountain is a DEEP bunker hardened to resist even direct nuclear attacks; "built to deflect a 30 megaton nuclear explosion as close as 2 kilometers" as Wikipedia puts it.
Kaor, DAVID!
I like that idea of yours very much! Yes, we see mention of how large part of Admiralty Center were build understand. I CAN see the Imperial Navy, soon after the Empire arose, selecting the by then ancient Cheyenne Mountain complex as the site of the HQ of the Navy. Because it was designed and built to withstand massive nuclear strikes. Of course the Navy would also be modernizing and drastically expanding the Cheyenne Mountain complex to suit the needs of an Empire operating over hundreds of light years. So that it soon became a city in its own right--that "damned company town" as Flandry somewhat derisively called it.
Sean
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