"'God have mercy,' she cried with her whole being. 'Oh, send them back where they belong!'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT CHAPTER NINETEEN, p. 353.
The Merseians recede. Djana has exercised her coercive psychic power on the Merseians in the form of a prayer. In Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy, prayer is described as coercing God. In CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength, Mark Studdock desperately cries out for help and receives it but not because he has coerced anyone.
Sarai, unable to help Everard, seeks a shrine of Asherat, prays that the goddess be gracious and is answered because she then recalls helpful information. Maybe the act of devotion helped to clear her mind?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What I've sometimes wondered is WHETHER Djana's psychic talent could have any effect over tens of thousands of kilometers (or even more). The sheer volume of space and the impossibility of the Merseians closely checking out every blip on their instruments would be more than enough to frustrate their search for Flandry.
I remember that bit from May's GALACTIC MILIEU books, about prayer being a "coercing" of God. It jarred me and I cannot agree with such a concept. God cannot be coerced and He answers prayers solely of His own free will.
Ad astra! Sean
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