After the arrest of Dominic Hazeltine, three scenes are necessary to complete Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. (I thought only two but I had forgotten (i) which, like everything else, is pivotal.)
(i) A conversation with Gospodar Bodin confirms Flandry's belief that, when the Imperials have withdrawn from the Zorian System, the Dennitzans will strike back at the Rodhunate. Dennitza will not, after all, rebel against the Empire but neither will it acquiesce to Imperial failure to grasp the nettle of Merseian aggression.
(ii) Flandry says Sayonara to Kossara in St. Clement's Cathedral.
(iii) Bodin leads the raid on Chereion. The hypnoprobing of Hazeltine has extracted the top secret coordinates of Aycharaych's home planet.
"As many as were able would attend [Kossara's] funeral."
-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 XVIII, p. 576.
Coincidentally, Nygel attended a big funeral in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral today. Two thousand mourners packed the Cathedral while others watched on a big screen outside. See here.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I recall, when Gospodar Bodin and Flandry were discussing the proposed raid into the Roidhunate (or was it after the bombardment of Chereion?), the former said he hoped Emperor Hans would sympathize. Flandry's reply was that not only would Hans sympathize, he would use the opportunity given by those who argued the Gospodar exceeded his authority as sector governor to flush out influential appeasers of Merseia from the gov't. Appeasers he had hitherto been unable to dismiss.
Sean
Sean,
I am still rereading and will find that passage.
I never expected to find so much in A KNIGHT... when rereading it yet again.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Before or after the bombardment of Chereion?
As I've argued in my latest article, there is SO much to be found in the works of Anderson. Plus, of course, the works of other good SF writers like S.M. Stirling.
Sean
Sean,
Before.
Paul.
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