How many characters did Poul Anderson create in all those stories and novels of different lengths? I have no idea. Is it possible even to guesstimate?
There are many spear-carriers. Raor was one in "The Year of the Ransom" but then was promoted to main villainess and female Varagan in The Shield Of Time.
Consider Yuri Alexeievitch Garshin, a Russian private fighting the mujahedin in Afghanistan in 1985. (This is yet another topical reference. The captain compares the Russian involvement in Afghanistan to the American involvement in Vietnam and Everard refers to Vietnam in "Star of the Sea.")
Garshin, from a kolkhoz near Shatsk and Ryazan, remembers:
his parents' cottage;
their samovar;
the collective farm;
ryefields;
larksong;
wildflowers;
walking with Yelena Borisovna.
He sees a large bird riding the wind and wonders whether it is a vulture.
We see Garshin at one place and time but in two timelines, manipulated by the Time Patrol.
4 comments:
And in the "corrected" universe, he dies.
Kaor, Nr. Stirling!
I'm not sure that was the case. In the "correct" timeline, Garshin never meets that fake Soviet captain is thus never given that forged doctument. We last see him trying to reach Soviet held territory alive.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
On rereading the passage, I think perhaps we are to infer Garshin's failure to reach his base and therefore his death.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree that is the most likely fate for Garshin. But, if he survived those perils to reach that Soviet base in the altered timeline, then it's not impossible he managed to do that as well in the "correct" timeline.
Ad astra! Sean
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