Two Agents

It is getting late here. For me, tomorrow will be a Buddhist one-day retreat followed by my granddaughter's (Indian takeaway) birthday meal so not much blogging. For this relief, much thanks, some might say.

Contrast two titles:

Agent Of The Terran Empire by Poul Anderson;

Agent Running In The Field by John Le Carre.

A perfect contrast: 1950s space opera versus an up-to-date contemporary thriller, published last year, with a character who, according to the dust jacket blurb:

"...hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency."

Perfect! (For a novel, I mean. I don't think this guy's life is perfect.) Sometimes we enjoy past futures. At other times, we enjoy fiction that is exactly where we are at, here and now.

I am fascinated by the contrasts, but also by the possible subtle connections, between contemporary thrillers and futuristic sf. Search this blog for John Le Carre, John Grisham, Frederick Forsyth and Stieg Larsson to see what I mean.

Have a good weekend. (Storm here, by the way.)