Tuesday 5 October 2021

Parallel Reading

In Poul Anderson's Harvest Of Stars, Kyra Davis is on the run from the Sepo. Meanwhile, in terms of my rereading, in John Grisham's The Pelican Brief, Darby Shaw is on the run from unknown assassins and, as usual with Grisham characters, unprepared to trust the FBI. 

Darby changes her clothes, cuts and dyes her hair black, not blond, wears dark glasses, starts smoking, does not run from the city because that will be expected, stays in a different hotel every night, learns to use cash, not credit card, and to stay in the smaller joints, chains her door, keeps the light on and Mace to hand and sleeps in the mornings, not at night. 

However, Darby's maneuvers are more appropriate in a contemporary legal/political thriller than are Kyra's in a speculative futuristic sf novel where we want to get to grips with the fundamental issues of technological advance, AI  and social philosophy.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Ha! I'm old fashioned in some ways. I prefer to use cash paying for the smaller expenses of life, not with my credit card. It's simpler that way and avoids the risk of building up a large credit card debt on which I would have to pay interest if I don't pay it off in full every month (Which I do, but usually for minimal sums).

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I use only cash or debit card, not credit card. Cheques are almost redundant.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Ha! I still use paper checks to pay monthly bills. I still think it's safer and better that way.

Ad astra! Sean