Friday, 18 August 2017

Defections

Poul Anderson shows us the Merseians as implacable enemies of mankind, then shows us why some human beings might defect to their cause:

Erik Magnusson (see here);
the Zacharians;
Dominic Hazeltine -

"'Yes, then, yes, I've been working for Merseia. Not bought, nothing like that, I thought the future was theirs, not this walking corpse of an Empire - Merciful angels, can't you see their way's the hope of mankind too? -'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT Chapter XVIII, p. 568.

And a non-human motivation for supporting Merseia is provided by Aycharaych.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I disagree with Dominic Hazeltine, both in his characterization of the Empire as a "walking corpse" and claiming Merseian rule would be the salvation of mankind. Both are so exaggerated that it comes down to them being simply WRONG.

Sean