Both Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time and SM Stirling's The Council Of Shadows refer to the Belle Epoque and to Notre Dame. Other common themes are fencing (swords also come into The Council Of Shadows) and characters meeting authors.
The most powerful of the Shadowspawn says:
"'Did I ever mention that I met the man Stoker? He was invaluable to us...'"
-SM Stirling, The Council Of Shadows (New York, 2012), CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 236.
The leader of a group of mutant time travelers says:
"'I hunted around and found me a young Englishman in the '90's, starting out as an author, a gifted fellow even if he was kind of a socialist. I wanted somebody late in the period, to avoid, um-m, anticipations, you see? He got interested in my, ha, 'hypothetical proposition,' and for a few guineas wrote me some clever things. I offered him more money but he said he'd rather have the free use of that time travel idea instead.'"
-Poul Anderson, There Will Be Time (New York, 1973), VII, p. 73.
Manse Everard of the Time Patrol meets a famous tall, thin, hawk-faced private investigator and his burly, mustached, limping amanuensis.
Stirling and Anderson celebrate and continue literary traditions.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I certainly agree that Anderson and Stirling celebrate and continue great literary traditions!
But I was sorry to read Bram Stoker was of VALUE to the Shadowspawn. And puzzled, because nothing I've read in DRACULA leads me to think the author of that work would APPROVE of the Shadowspawn.
Sean
Books speak to each other.. 8-).
Sean: lurid fictional vampires rendere the real thing less credible.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree that authors and their books speak to each other!
And Bram Stoker's vampires were so lurid they made the Shadowspawn less credible? Not sure I agree, because, if anything, I thought the Shadowspawn more lurid than Stoker's vampires.
SEan
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