John Watson begins by telling his readers how he met Sherlock Holmes. Later, Holmes tells Watson, and thus also us, how he got into private detective work and the details of his first case.
By contrast, we began to read about James Bond's career at an arbitrary starting point. Bond then moved forward in real time, revealing some later revised details about his earlier life. Current continuers of the series should fill in the earlier years, not keep the character impossibly in our present.
Dominic Flandry could have kept going for longer thanks to antisenescence but Anderson had other things to write.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We do see mention in A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS of Flandry declining promotion to a rank higher than that of captain. Because higher rank would have come with increased responsibility and WORK. But Flandry really was too able and, in his own way, CONSCIENTIOUS a person to permanently refuse such promotions. A STONE IN HEAVEN shows him as having reached the rank of admiral.
Sean
Sean:
A point to consider about refusing promotion is that an able and conscientious person might be certain he could accomplish more for his agency by remaining at his current rank than if he were promoted. In that case, he'd feel he had a DUTY to decline promotion.
Kaor, DAVID!
I think I understand. Esp. if such an officer was still young and vigorous enough to do field work. Flandry had already done amazing thing for the Empire by the time he had reached the rank of captain in the Imperial Navy. Still, sometime during the 14 years between A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS and A STONE IN HEAVEN, Flandry had finally accepted promotion to admiral's rank. The latter book was the last time, that we know of, that he did field work. After that, Flandry was largely one of the advisers to the Emperor, perhaps even a member of the Policy Board.
Sean
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