See Sunrise And Sunset. (Both Stirling And Fleming describe a sunset behind Blue Mountains.)
"Punctually at six o'clock the sun set with a last yellow flash behind the Blue Mountains, a wave of violet shadow poured down Richmond Road, and the crickets and tree frogs in the fine gardens began to zing and tinkle."
-Ian Fleming, Doctor No (London, 1989), Chapter I, p. 5.
"The sun was just setting. The wave of violet shadow was creeping down towards the town and the harbour." (Chapter VI, p. 53)
"The sun was coming up over the Blue Mountain peak and dusty shafts of gold lanced into the plunging valley." (Chapter VII, p. 58)
"The sun blazed beautifully into its grave." (Chapter VII, p. 62)
I began to appreciate sunsets and sunrises in Poul Anderson's works and now notice similar descriptions in the works of comparably colourful writers like Ian Fleming.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I remember the very first line of Chapter I of ENSIGN FLANDRY: "Evening on Terra--" and which is followed by a listing of Emperor Georgios titles and the remark that it was his birthday. Alert readers would soon realize how ominous that "Evening on Terra" was. Such as the evening of an elderly Emperor's life, the evening of the Empire itself?
Sean
Sean,
Even more ominously, in ENSIGN FLANDRY, Chapter One is Evening On Terra, Chapter Two is Night On Starkad (where Flandry is believed dead) and Chapter Three is Morning On Merseia. Finally, Chapter Four is the untitled introducion of "Ensign Dominic Flandry, Imperial Naval Flight Corps..." I published a post about the symbolism of these chapters somewhere on the blog.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Aha! That "night" on Starkad began with the possible death of Flandry, before ever we had known him! And "morning" on Merseia can also stand for the "morning" of her vaulting ambitions and soaring self confidence.
But even Chapter II ends with a bit of possible hope. Because Commander Abrams had captured Dwyr the Hook as he was burglarizing the Intelligence Corps offices on Starkad. And Chapter IV is where things start going wrong for Merseia.
Sean
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