Not wanting to blog after about 9:00 PM, I stop rereading The Avatar and start rereading Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire where Paulo Roberto (and see here) rescues the title character's kidnapped girlfriend. There is violence, a warehouse is burned down and, behind it all, there is an intelligence services conspiracy.
Similar plots in dissimilar settings.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I saw a warehouse being burned down in Boston, MA in Stirling's novel, BLACK CHAMBER. To say nothing of the rivalry between the German and US intelligence services! Frankly, I like Horst von Duckmeler (spelling from memory) and I hope he survives the book.
Sean
Sean,
The ending was very unclear as to what happened to Horst and his companions.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Good! That's one of Stirling methods, to leave some loose ends at the conclusions of his books. So he would be able to again use some characters in sequels.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
The name is von Duckler, with an umlaut over the u, which means that the pronunciation is in between “fon Ducklair” and “fon Dicklair”.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
I did know I kept getting Horst's name wrong! Horst von DUCKLER. And my keyboard doesn't have an umlaut.
Frankly, I liked Horst von DUCKLER, and I rather hope we see him again in the second BLACK CHAMBER book. And will he have LEARNED from the mistakes the Germans made in handling intelligence operations and more carefully guarding classified information?
Good heavens, Colonel Nikolai did not have a SAFE in his office for storing classified documents when he was not there! A safe very well might have beaten Luz after the exhausting struggles she made to get to Nikolai's office. She simply would not have had the time for cracking the safe and copying the German plans before the power went back on and the alarm system alerted the guards something was wrong in the office.
Commander Max Abrams would have upbraided Col. Nikolai, on professional grounds alone. In Chapter 2 of ENSIGN FLANDRY, Abrams left his office in Highport, on Starkad, and was approaching his quarters before he remembered that he had forgotten to lock up the papers he had been studying. He was tempted to trust the ordinary defenses, but went back to properly store the documents. And, as we know, he captured Dwyr the Hook, a Merseian spy and genuine cyborg, who would have been able to crack Abrams' safe!
Best regards! Sean
Kaor, Sean!
Good thinking; I didn’t give attention to how Colonel Nicolai’s documents should have been secured, or think of the contrast to Max Abrams in ENSIGN FLANDRY.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
I was AMAZED that Colonel Nikolai left such critically important papers as the German plans for attacking the US out in plain sight in his office! It seemed so obvious to me that such documents need to be stored in a safe when not being used. And that led me to remember the far better example set by Commander Abrams.
Regards! Sean
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