the time that Dominic Flandry spent with Kathryn McCormac before returning her to her husband;
his time with Kossara Vymezal before her assassination;
his eventual partnership with Miriam Abrams;
the beginning of a relationship between David Falkayn and Coya Conyon in "Lodestar" and their married life in Mirkheim;
difficulties, then marriage, between Tabitha Falkayn and Christopher Holm;
Manse Everard's brief affair with Janne Floris and the slow build-up to his longer term relationship with Wanda Tamberly;
the time that Fenn and Kinna spend together on Mars in The Fleet Of Stars.
No doubt there are many other examples.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And there was, of course, the complex relations Gratillonius had, as king of Ys, with the nine witch queens of Ys!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
One in particular.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I think you meant Gratillonius' own daughter, Dahut, whom he absolutely refused to "marry" in any way. Quite rightly!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Good point but I had had in mind Grallon's special relationship with Dahut's young mother.
The Three of Ys intended to end their covenant with the city when they put their mark on Grallon's daughter.
Grallon was some sort of religious cross-over: a devotee of Mithras; King of Ys, therefore the incarnation of Taranis; Roman prefect in the city, thus representing a Christian state with the responsibility of consulting a bishop and appointing a chaplain to the city.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I thought of Dahilis as well. But, however devoted Gratillonius was to her, their relationship was in many ways a very normal one, nothing that should cause trouble for him in Ys.
And my view is the gods of Ys, by placing their mark on Dahut, were determined to either bend Gratillonius to their wills or destroy the city if they could not do that. Cruel and false gods!
Gratillonius might also be thought of as a transitional figure, straddling both Greco/Roman classical civilization and the first faint beginnings of what would become Western civilization.
Ad astra! Sean
My objection to the Gods of Ys was not that they were cruel or false, but that they were dumb as rocks.
They were threatened by the spread of Christianity, but however inwardly hostile, Gratillonius was their sole hope.
He was sending an expedition across the Atlantic when they scuppered Ys.
Ysian colonization of the New World would have been a massive chance for their followers to grow and spread and make converts.
Now that is forward thinking. Not that I think that that sort of religion wanted converts but it did want to survive.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Very interesting points, ones I never thought of before. Darn! Probably because Gratillonius was only just STARTING to think of sending an exploratory expedition across the Atlantic when the stupid "gods" of Ys destroyed the city.
And I even wrote a long, nine pages letter to Poul and Karen Anderson about THE KING OF YS.
Ad astra! Sean
Greetings to Any Interested!
My last comment above got me wondering what happened to the letters fans of Anderson sent to him? Unlike some writers, Anderson enjoyed "hearing" from his readers and appreciated many of the letters they wrote. He even did me the honor of writing he found MY letters, too long tho many of them were, INTERESTING.
But I don't think Anderson was much for keeping letters. His habit seems to have been to discard them after writing replies. Which makes me very glad I was careful to keep copies of the letters I wrote, to include with his replies. I think that was also what Paul did, make copies of the letters he wrote to PA.
A French fan and translator of many of the stories of Anderson found out about my correspondence with him, and that led to me agreeing to make copies of the letters and send them to him. Which he, Jean-Daniel Breque, then used to help in writing his book ORPHEE AUX ETOILES (2007).
That means my correspondence with Anderson, comprising 24 letters with replies, along with those of Paul, may be unusually complete examples of surviving correspondence with PA. I hope Paul and myself were not the only fans to follow such a procedure.
Ad astra! Sean
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