Have I contrasted the Adversary in Poul Anderson's
Operation Chaos with Mike Carey's
Lucifer before? Whereas Anderson's Adversary is pure malevolence, Carey's Lucifer is indifferent, motivated only by self-will but not by malice. Hell has accreted around him but he abandons it as pointless. He resents having been created and gets as far away from his creator as he can but does not aim to replace Him. Another, and different, fictional version of the Devil is Satan in James Blish's
The Day After Judgment.
The unnumbered
opening section of
Operation Chaos refers to the curious cases of
Benjamin Bathurst and
Kaspar Hauser, names that are familiar although it is necessary to google to be reminded of the details.
This is another example of late night other reading feeding back into the blog. Good night
.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Before I click on the links for Benjamin Bathurst and Kaspar Hauser, I would like to say I think I read a story about the former case. A story where Bathurst was somehow flung into a timeline where Napoleon Bonaparte helped to stamp out the French Revolution and was a loyal servant of Louis XVI and NOT a usurping Emperor of France.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I believe that you’re thinking of a story by H. Beam Piper; in that timeline, the French Revolution didn’t happen (after the American Revolution was suppressed), so M. Bonaparte didn’t stamp it out, but was a mid-ranking French officer whose loyalty had never been questioned.
By the way, from what I’ve read, it seems that Benjamin Bathurst was robbed and murdered in mundane fashion, not transported crosstime to a different history. Too bad for sf fen like us.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Exactly! When I did look up the Bathurst link, I read of how Piper wrote "He Walked Around the Horses," which was the story I had in mind.
Yes, Bathurst almost certainly disappeared for mundane, ordinary reasons. NOT somehow transported to another timeline. As said, too bad for SF fen like us!
Regards! Sean
Kaor, Nicholas!
And I remembered as well of how, in Piper's story, the papers (both official and newspapers) carried by Bathurst caused a good deal of bewilderment to the authorities in the other timeline. French, British, Austrian, and Prussian.
Regards! Sean
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