Flandry
Bond
Solo and Kuryakin
To rearrange them into a fictional chronological order:
Bond, Cold War and detente;
UNCLE, detente and the beginning of a global technological future;
Flandry, an interstellar technological future.
Flandry fights impressive villains, not only Aycharaych but also A'u. However, these are individual agents of the intelligence service of a foreign power. There is no sense of an organization as a recurring collective villain in the Flandry series. By contrast, Bond gives us SMERSH, SPECTRE and several criminal gangs while UNCLE gives us Thrush. I have been posting about these organizations on the Personal and Literary Reflections blog where I will shortly add "The Search for Thrush Central." Later: See here.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I thought the Roidhunate of MERSEIA was the "recurring collective villain" of the Flandry stories? Acting thru its own Intelligence service, of course. One problem for Merseia, however, was that due to Aycharaych's truly unique abilities, Merseia became so heavily dependent on him that Aycharaych WAS her Intelligence service. Which meant it was a very HARD blow for Merseia when Aycharaych was either killed or disappeared at the end of A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. As the Protector Tachwyr the Dark reflected in THE GAME OF EMPIRE, it took Merseia a decade and more to painfully build up a true Intelligence service in the INSTITUTIONAL sense. Something like the Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps.
Sean
Sean,
Yes but the Roidhunate is like the USSR, not like SMERSH.
Paul.
Paul:
It is extremely frustrating to be unable to comment directly on the Personal and Literary Reflections. I'd just like to point out that in "Raduysya Mariye," your deduction about "chas' smyerti nashyey" meaning "the hour of our deaths" is supported by a reference in the James Bond novel From Russia With Love, which mentions that "nash" is Russian for "our" or "ours." Don't trust anyone named Nash; he belongs to the Russkis.
And "Bozhi" is the genitive-adjective of "Bog," so as I'm sure you suspected, "matyer' Bozhi" is likely to be "God's mother" or "mother of God."
David,
Yes. Sorry you're having that problem. I am just glad that that these blogs work most of the time and I hope that they will not be switched off at some future date.
Paul.
There really isn't a "villain" in the Flandry stories. The Rhoidunate isn't evil; it's just a rival, sometimes an enemy. You don't have to be evil to be an enemy, you just have to be on the other side.
Most conflicts aren't about Good vs. Bad; they're just Us vs. Them. People should keep this in mind more.
Mr Stirling,
Well the Roidhunate is racist and supremacist. It would subordinate or exterminate humanity. I would call human agents of the Roidhunate traitors to their species whereas I would not describe human beings loyal to Ythri in such terms.
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
While I agree not all rivals are evil, some are. I agree with what Paul and would remind readers of my article "Was The Domination Inspired By Merseia?" I compared how much, in some ways, your Draka had in common with the Merseians. They were both enthralled by a racist ideology exalting their races at the expense of all others. And, as we know from ENSIGN FLANDRY, Merseia was quite willing to exterminate entire intelligent races to attain her goals.
The rivalry between the Empire and the Roidhunate was deadly and played for EXISTENTIALLY high stakes. It was not like the centuries long rivalry between France and England. However much many of the French and English loathed each other, their wars were not ideological (except during the Revolutionary/Napoleonic periods).
Sean
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