"'The Cainites don't have our kind of group solidarity. If Kochihir and his buddy came to grief at our hands, that was their hard luck. But Shivaru and some of the others had read our psychology shrewdly enough to know what a hold on us their three prisoners gave.'" (p. 305)
Know your enemy. Understand alien psychology. Coincidentally, I have just started to reread Dornford Yates' second Chandos book in which Mansel's cousin's wife is kidnapped. That is not her hard luck.
In Niven and Pournelle's Football, the aliens know only one way to deal with humanity:
attack;
either conquer or be conquered;
fully embrace either outcome;
if captured, immediately switch your loyalty to your captors.
Aliens, indeed.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember Pournelle/Niven's FOOTFALL very well and with great pleasure! And one point I remember about the "elephantoid" aliens was that their inclination was to have a "herd" mentality. Strong group solidarity either to their own herd or even their conquerors "herd" if defeated.
Ad asta! Sean
In FOOTFALL, the aliens are descended from a herbivore, IIRC, with a herd social structure, which makes sense given their psychology.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly what I had in mind.
Ad astra! Sean
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