The subatomic, quantum level of the brain is necessary for consciousness and interacts with the universal substrate, thus modulating the Power like a transistor modulating an electric current. This sounds like Aycharaych or other mentally powerful beings in Poul Anderson's works although the imagined psychic powers differ.
The premises of the Shadowspawn Trilogy allow for a truly horrific conclusion which hopefully Stirling will not inflict either on his characters or on his readers. By the end of Volume II, the good guys have killed one powerful Shadowspawn and have found out by intelligence work, not the hard way, that Adrienne, believed killed, is still alive.
Would you nuke a city? - if it were the Draka capital or if the Council of Shadows were meeting there? Of course, if the Council is planning to kill most of humanity, then the argument becomes: "Most of the people we are going to kill would have been killed anyway." But that would be an argument of desperation and we do not usually face such choices. See also here and here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, we see a crushing dilemma here: Harvey Ledbetter's conviction that destroying Tbilisi would be worth the mass slaughter of innocents if it also meant destroying the Council of Shadows and most adult Shawowspawn. The alternative, at best, would have been Operation Trimback (Option 2) in which a tailored smallpox plague killed most of the human race (probably including most people in Tbilisi). I agree, it would be very hard not to agree that here the end did justify the means. But that's an argument of desperation and still open to the challenge that it went too far, which was Adrian Breze's belief.
Adrian was no pacifist, no advocate of peace at any cost, including even accepting being slaves of the Shadowspawn. But he wanted to use weapons and tactics against the Shadowspawn that would do the least harm possible to people.
Sean
Post a Comment