Thursday, 18 April 2019

During Battle

"A slight, dark-faced youth squirmed nearby, trying feebly to pull out the javelin which had pierced his stomach. He was a slinger from Carthage, but the burly Italian peasant who sat next to him, staring without belief at the stump of an arm, paid no attention."
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 173-228 AT p. 223.

"A man sat and stared at the stump where a hand had been."
-SM Stirling, Snowbrother (New York, 1985), Chapter 14, p. 202.

And that is exactly what it must be like.

I am up early for a dental appointment but there is nothing to prevent us from visiting a couple of battlefields over cereal and coffee.
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1 comment:

  1. Sean M. Brooks18 April 2019 at 15:58

    Kaor, Paul!

    The longest discussion Poul Anderson gave us about war was in his book THERMONUCLEAR WARFARE. But his introduction to SEVEN CONQUESTS gives us a condensed summary of his thoughts about war.

    Sean

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