"'...those were good years. Were they not? I will miss my partners. I told Davy so.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT p. 289.
Chee Lan:
"'We enjoyed the trader game as long as that lasted.'"
-op. cit, p. 291.
Fortunately, these two agree to continue:
"'...conferring, Adzel, for the rest of our days...'"
-op. cit., p. 290
- although for practical, political purposes, not just for sentimentality.
Hercule Poirot:
"'"We shall not hunt together again, my friend. Our first hunt was here - and our last...
"'"They were good days.
"'"Yes, they have been good days...'"
"(End of Hercule Poirot's manuscript.)"
-Agatha Christie, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (Glasgow, 1980), p. 188.
Watching Curtain, I was struck by the similarity between Adzel's and Poirot's assessments of their careers. I will now read Curtain for the first time and will look out for any further similarities.
3 comments:
Paul:
In one of Andre Norton's Witch World novels, the main character of the first book gets an update on what's been going on while he was stranded in yet another universe (it's been a shorter time for him than it was for the person telling him; Elf Hill sort of business, y'know). Referring to an event from that first tale:
"Volt's ax," my father repeated as one who remembers many things. "Volt's abiding place and the ax.... Those were brave days. Their like will not come again for us, I believe."
David,
Nail on the head.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
And of course it was a pity Chee Lan and Adzel couldn't have met again in future years simply for sentimental and personal reasons! That would have been better than NEEDING to do so in the increasingly troubled years following the Mirkheim/Babur crisis.
Sean
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