I will shortly read le Carre's A Legacy Of Spies, the recent sequel to his Cold War classic, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and will no doubt make some comparisons with Flandry. See:
Flandry And Leamas
London And Luna
Thursday, 12 April 2018
Legacies
I will shortly read le Carre's A Legacy Of Spies, the recent sequel to his Cold War classic, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and will no doubt make some comparisons with Flandry. See:
Flandry And Leamas
London And Luna
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3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
When it comes to spy novels, I'm most familiar with the Dominic Flandry and James Bond stories, which you too have read. But, some how I never got into LeCarre's books. Which I should try to do. I have read most of William F. Buckley's novels featuring Blackford Oakes. I rather hope you might sometime read WFB's SAVING THE QUEEN and STAINED GLASS.
Sean
The actual historical model for the Terran Empire/Mereisian Empire rivalry is that between Rome (and later the East Roman Empire, aka Byzantium) and Parthian and Sassanid Persia. That lasted for more than six hundred years, until the two empires exhausted each other in the 7th century, and Persia was wholly and East Rome largely overrun by the early Arab conquests.
The mechanisms of the rivalry often smack of the Cold War... but then, a lot of the Byzantine-Sassanid struggle did too; the intrigues in border kingdoms like Armenia, for example.
There was an ideological component too, especially after Rome became Christian.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree! And I would argue, like it or not, that very similar rivalries and intrigues are happening right how. China, Russia, Iran, N Korea, for somewhat different reasons, don't love the US (the hegemon of the West) and would like to either humble or destroy us
Sean
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