The kzin called Spots wants to kill Tyra Nordbo although we know that Tyra will be alive later in installments written by Poul Anderson. A loose way of describing this scenario is to say that Spots cannot kill Tyra because she will be alive later. More accurately, it is the case not that Spots cannot kill Tyra or that it is impossible that he kill her but only that we already know that, whatever else happens, he will not kill her. If he tries, then something or other will prevent him from succeeding even though we do not yet know what.
Many an attempt to kill someone fails. Sf opens up many extra ways to save the appearances:
Tyra is killed but replaced by a clone with her memories;
she is killed in one timeline although not in another;
a narrative in which she was killed described a virtual reality experience;
etc.
However, such gimmicks cannot be deployed in any and every work of sf. Most probably, all that will happen will be that some unexpected event will prevent Spots from carrying out his plan to kill Tyra.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I only wish SOMETHING had prevented the Sarajevo assassination of 1914! So much agony, tyranny, and bloodshed extending over seven decades would then have been avoided. I know Stirling has suggested that OTHER things just as bad would very likely have happened, but we can't know that for sure.
Ad astra! Sean
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