Unusually, the chapter changes in the middle of a conversation. On p. 346, the text ends a third of the way down the page with:
"'Meanwhile the war goes on.'
"She cocked her head and stared at him. 'What's that got to do with us? I mean, sure, it's terrible, but we can't do anything about it. Can we?'" (p. 346)
The facing page begins with the heading for CHAPTER FIFTEEN, then:
"He drew a long breath. 'Come aside with me and let us talk,' he said." (p. 347)
It is like a commercial break at a dramatic moment in a TV drama. Targovi's long breath and invitation to Diana to come aside and talk further are his response to her "'Can we?'" There is no expected change of scene or even temporal gap between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. That has to be a sign that Diana's understanding of their whole reason for being on Daedalus is about to change significantly in the light of what Targovi is going to tell her. But I will confirm that only by continuing to read and that will not happen until some time tomorrow.
It is good but it takes a long time to get through an Anderson text if we give each detail its due attention.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Darn, I never thought before to notice this rather odd handling of the end of Chapter Fourteen and beginning of Chapter Fifteen of THE GAME OF EMPIRE. It is odd, once you pointed it out.
Ad astra! Sean
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