"'If the loser is not killed she will be banished forever. That will be the same as death. These people wither and die outside the tribe. They cannot live in our world. It is like wild beasts forced to live in a cage.'"
-Ian Fleming, From Russia, With Love (London, 1964), CHAPTER 18, p. 129.
I quote this passage for reasons obvious to readers of Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return. We, editorially speaking, have previously remarked on the occasional relevance of alternative late night reading.
Dominic Flandry's opposite number in Merseian Intelligence is Aycharaych. Bond's opposite number in SMERSH is Donovan Grant who could have his own film just as Aycharaych deserves his own novel.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I too immediately thought of the tinerans and their unwitting addiction to the telepathic animals called "slinkers," creatures amplifying and feeding on their emotions.
Yet again I'm reminded that Ian Fleming's stories about James Bond are worth reading. At least the pre-SPECTRE books.
Might Anderson have shown us Aycharaych coming back from being apparently dead if he had written more Technic stories after THE GAME OF EMPIRE? If so, what kind of "player" might he had been? Would he have continued to serve Merseia? Or might Aycharaych have struck out in a totally unexpected direction? We don't know because Anderson wanted to go on to other ideas and themes.
Ad astra! Sean
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