Poul Anderson's action-adventure fiction moves fast.
In A Knight..., XIV, on pp. 529-531, Dominic Flandry meets his fiancee's father, Danilo Vymezal. This is the only time we see Vymezal.
In XV, Flandry and Kossara have their short idyllic time in her father's log cabin. This is cut short on p. 534 by the blue-white flash of a nuclear explosion as it destroys Kossara's manor house home and kills her family.
When XVI begins on p. 539, Flandry and Kossara are on the Obala, mobilizing the zmayi.
In eleven pages, all that has happened. It seems that these passages should be longer but Poul Anderson tells his story in few words.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It's a sign of Anderson's EFFICIENCY as a writer that he manages to tell so much in so few pages. One you mentioned it, I had to wonder if all these events should have been narrated at greater length. But Anderson manages to do so in only 11 pages without it seeming to be rushed.
Sean
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