Let's Go

If you have read a fictional series from beginning to end, do you remember exactly how it ends, the concluding words of the final episode and the last thoughts of the central character?

"The men were descending with their plunder. 'Let's go,' Everard said, and led them away."

-Poul Anderson, "Death And The Knight" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 741-765 AT p. 765.

"James Bond said wearily, 'Okay. With any luck it'll cost me my Double-O number. But tell Head of Station not to worry. That girl won't do any more sniping. Probably lost her left hand. Certainly broke her nerve for that kind of work. Scared the living daylights out of her. In my book, that was enough. Let's go."

-Ian Fleming, "The Living Daylights" IN Fleming, Octopussy (London, 1982), pp. 91-125 AT pp. 124-125.

 

And we must go because both series have ended.

 

Everard has just reflected that love does not excuse everything but also asked whether love itself is ever a sin at the very end of the last Time Patrol story. Bond has just disobeyed the order to kill an enemy sniper, because she was a young woman that he liked, at the very end of a posthumously published collection.

Before we go, let us also remember the endings of Anderson's Technic History and of Fleming's posthumously published novel.

 

"The laughter was somewhat of a victory."

-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 709-794 AT p. 794.

Daven Laure was just learned that he cannot marry the woman that he loves.

"For James Bond, the same view would always pall."

-Ian Fleming, The Man With The Golden Gun (New York, 1965), p. 158.

Bond has just reflected that love from any woman is not enough for him because:

 

"It would be like taking 'a room with a view.'" (ibid.)

 

 Need I say more?