"Flandry...carried two handguns, blaster and stunner, plus a warknife, extra ammunition, and energy charges. That was about the practical limit." (p. 336)
(The Merseian warknife has a kuckleduster handle.)
That sounds almost comical and reminds me of a couple of jokes. In Doctor Who, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, stationed in some out-of-the-way place, got on the phone, ordered a heap of superfluous weaponry, then remarked, "I feel absolutely naked down here!" In the US in the summer of 1973, I saw a poster in which the then President ran through a field with a knife in his mouth, ammunition on his back, a machine gun in his hands and other knives and pistols attached to various parts of his body. The caption read: "Peace With Honor!"
Incidentally, in Flandry's case at least, all those weapons really are necessary. We continue to follow his adventures on Talwin with interest.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Flandry picked all those weapons for good sound reasons. They would provide him with a range of options and choices. Ranging from the lethal--the blaster--to the non lethal--the stunner. He was willing to kill if he had to, but would prefer not to, hence the stunner. And that war knife was for up close and personal fighting, in case of need.
And I know who was President of the US in 1973, Richard Nixon! He devoted his first term in office trying to find ways and means of extricating the US from the Vietnam War without either too much disgrace to the US and to giving South Vietnam a chance of fighting off the aggression from Hanoi. By both diplomatic and military means (such as the Christmas bombings, which finally cracked Hanoi's will).
Truth to say, I think that was a mistake. I think I read somewhere that on the day Nixon took office in 1969, on analyst said he should have asked Congress for a declaration of way, saying that absent that, Nixon would immediately withdraw all US forces from S. Vietnam. The idea being that a formal declaration of war would show the US was SERIOUS about the war and do whatever it took to bring about a satisfactory resolution. It would no longer be Johnson's War or Nixon's War, but AMERICA'S war.
Well, events did not turn out like that!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Btw, that Merseian war knife of Flandry's was probably the same one he lent Kathryn McCormac for cutting Aaron Snelund's throat with in THE REBEL WORLDS.
Ad astra!! Sean
Sean,
Or one he took from the airbus? Kathryn might have kept the one he gave her.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Both are possible, I agree! I can see Kathryn keeping that knife, as a grim relic of her revenge on Snelund.
Ad astra! Sean
I always carry a knife myself, except in places behind metal-detectors. Usually what’s called a flick-knife in Britain. The most all-round useful of tools and the handiest; it’s saved my life a couple of times.
Some authors share experiences with their characters even if most readers don't.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Even a Swiss Army pocket knife will do, in a pinch, for that.
Ad astra! Seam
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