-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 354.
"...he addressed his master." (ibid.)
Thus, we gather, if we had not known already, that Chives is Flandry's servant.
Two pages later, Flandry wonders whether to have Chives phone a cepheid agency. Then:
"As if at a signal, his personal servant appeared, a Shalmuan, slim kilt-clad form remarkably human-like except for 140 centimeters of height, green skin, hairlessness, long prehensile tail, and, to be sure, countless small subtle variations." (p. 356)
My point is that this is the sort of description of an alien that is usually given on the occasion of his first appearance in a text whereas, in this case, Chives has already appeared, undescribed, two pages previously. It reads to me as though the text should have been revised to move the description to p. 354. Why was a servant bare-footed? It turns out that Chives is an alien and therefore that a different dress code applies.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
The "textual oddity" that really caught my interest was Flandry wondering if he should have Chives 'phone a "cepheid agency." I'm not sure, except from context, what "cepheid agency" means. My impression was it refers to the more expensive types of "escort services," as we call them in the US (bluntly, expensive prostitutes).
And I thought Chives was barefoot in the "Hooligan" because he felt no need to wear footwear most times aboard Flandry's space boat. I have no doubt the "Hooligan" was amply clean and comfortable!
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