-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER NINETEEN, p. 406.
Tigeries, like Ythrians, remain much closer to animality than human beings. They are similar to the anthropomorphized animals in some works of fiction - not those that wear clothes and live in houses but those that still live in the wild.
Targovi runs at and climbs a wall with his claws. He can run faster than a Terrestrial tiger but does he run upright or on all fours?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unless his skeletal structure and conformation was more like that of a quadrupedal tiger, I would argue Targovi ran more like a man or any other true biped.
Sean
Also, sedentary people in our time tend to underestimate what a human body raised in a high-demand environment is capable of. I've known men who killed lions with knives, for example; and if you've watched parkour experts, you'll see them run up walls and similar feats -- one of my karate instructors could turn and run full-tilt at a wall away from ou, up it, backflip and come down on his feet behind you. It was astonishing... particularly the first time he did it to you. (He was a big guy, too, over six feet and quite heavily built.)
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree! I do try to be at least intellectually aware that a fit and trained expert can physically do things of the kind you listed. Even if he is as big and heavy as your karate instructor.
Sean
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