Among his many acknowledgments, Stirling thanks:
Joe's Dining (see first image)
Ecco Express and Gelato
- for letting him sit interminably and write.
The PROLOGUE includes a very well deserved acknowledgment to HG Wells who predicted events both in our timeline (A) and in the fictional timeline (B). B gets its MAD before we get ours.
Once again, characters in an alternative history comment obliquely on our history, this time by grimacing at the thought of Woodrow Wilson as President in 1917.
See:
Theater Of Spies: Prologue
Our Alternative History
Our Alternative Universe
In Chapter ONE, look for a multi-sensory description:
good view;
hot and dry;
drinking;
heavy scent;
clicking and buzzing -
- and a deft summary of the previous conflicts between heroine and villain. The adventure continues.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have seen, in more than one of Stirling's books, how he expresses gratitude for the patience and tolerance some cafes have shown for that "weird" guy in the corner cackling and chortling as he typed away on his laptop!
And I would like it if some cafes would show a similar tolerance for chess players! In fact, the "Au Bon Pain" cafe on Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, is a favorite hang out for chess players, esp. at the tables outside when the weather is good. Of course, it's kinda expected of the chess players that they buy something from the cafe, which is fair enough.
And I share those characters disdain for Woodrow Wilson, a truly terrible president! Fortunately, at least in domestic US affairs, Wilson's incompetence mitigated the harm he might have done (and his Republican successors Harding and Coolidge reversed his bad policies). Unfortunately, the "Progressive" ideas of Wilson remained the ideology of the Democrats and began to be implemented after Franklin Roosevelt, a much smarter and slicker politician, became President.
And Wilson's role in WW I and the bungled peace settlement was a catastrophe! So I would grimace too, in SHADOWS OF ANNIHILATION at the mere idea of Wilson being president.
And I don't think Horst von Duckler was a villain, not if you compare him to Count Ignatieff, William Walker, Adrienne Breze, and the Draka!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Sean!
Your mention of chess players reminds me of decades ago, when I was in the Penn State Go Club. We would sometimes meet in the HUB (Hetzel Union Building), but occasionally elsewhere. I remember playing a few times in the Corner Room, an off-campus restaurant, in the evening. I would drink cranberry juice or beer, and we would occupy a table or two on an evening that wasn’t too busy otherwise.
Go is mentioned in Anderson’s works. There is a scene where Flandry gets into Naval Headquarters without delay by blackmailing the sergeant standing guard, whom he had seen playing Go at Madame Cepheid’s, where the pieces were live girls. He tells the man, “I’m sure your wife would be happy to know that you are still capable of such truly epic feats of —“
There is also mention of tables with chess and go boards, I think among the Lunarians, somewhere in the “Harvest of Stars” series.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Thanks for leaving some comments! I am, in fact, in the middle of a chess game with my ancient but formidable Radio Shack Chess Champion 2150L stand alone chess computer. I opened play with 1 e4, and Black replied with 1...c6, the Caro-Kann Defense. Alas, I'm starting to think some risky moves I tried have failed and I will lose the game! (Smiles)
And I remember that amusing incident of Flandry with the Marine sergeant in WE CLAIM THESE STARS! Way back WHEN, longer ago than I really care to admit, during the time I first read that story in AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, I had not realized Madame Cepheid's was a fancy brothel and WHAT those young ladies playing live GO pieces were doing. (Smiles)
Yes, I recall some mentions of chess in Anderson's HARVEST OF STARS books, but mostly in the last volume, THE FLEET OF STARS. It interested me to know Anderson still liked chess during his final years.
I also discussed, in my "Andersonian Chess" article, how we see Anderson using chess most deeply or thoroughly in "The Immortal Game" and A CIRCUS OF HELLS. I naturally hope that essay was of some interest to you.
Regards! Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I do remember your “Andersonian Chess” article, which was of some interest to me. I also noted his mentions of Go, partly because it is less well known in America than chess, but I do play it, or at least know how, although I haven’t played in years, being too busy. I used to be in the Northern Virginia Go Club, and back when I was a post-doc at Boston University, I went to the Massachusetts Go Club a few times; I believe its members could have staffed the physics, math, and computer science departments of a respectable college.
Anyway, Anderson was something of a Japanophile, which may account for his knowledge of Go.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Most of what I know or read about Go came from perusing HJR Murray's massive A HISTORY OF CHESS (1913), in which he traces that game's origins to China. Yes, Western chess is more popular in the US than Go. I would need to learn how to play that game before I could fairly decide which I would prefer more.
And I would like to know what was the source Anderson used for the Immortal Game in the story of that same name. I was surprised and rather bothered to find out some of the moves of that game in "The Immortal Game" differed from the moves I've seen in what seems to be the standard sources.
Regards! Sean
Horst is a "positional" villain, like many of the Meresians in Poul's books -- he's serving his empire, the protagonists are serving theirs, history means that they clash.
Horst is a good friend, a conscientious commander, loves his family, and if he survives and marries would probably be a good husband and father.
Now, Ernst Rohm (a major-minor character in this book) really -is- a bad man, personally -- brave and clever, but a vicious sadist personally, and depraved in his personal life (I'm not referring to his sexual orientation, but to the way he went about it).
Horst cooperates with him because they're on the same side and, as he thinks of it, you use what's to hand for the Fatherland. He wouldn't have anything to do with him in his private life.
Horst does have a strong personal dislike of Luz, and that does have an element of wounded vanity, but nobody's perfect and as Luz thinks, nobody likes being "played".
She doesn't particularly dislike him as a person -- in fact, she sort of admires him in the abstract. She just think's he's too dangerous to live.
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