The Ershoka that have captured Falkayn approach a city held by their people but besieged by their enemies:
"'We'll make a rush,' Padrick said. The wind and the cataract boomed around his words. 'Thorn's folk'll see us and sally forth to fetch us in.'" (p. 157)
This happens so often that we have to notice it. How many authors would simply have reported Padrick's dialogue? Instead, Poul Anderson interrupts that dialogue with booming wind and cataract, supplying any prospective film-makers with appropriate sound effects. And what could be more appropriate to a proposed charge through enemy lines than a loud wind? Winds and storms punctuate Anderson's prose almost like commas and full stops.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A CATARACT of water on or near the sunward side of a planet with one side permanently facing its sun? I needed a few moments to realize how jarring that would be for most Ikranankans!
Ad astra! Sean
Making a rush through besieger's lines is a real thing; it all depends on the methods, the ratio of space to force, etc. Investing a large city "closely" -- with continuous lines of earth berms and trenches -- is extremely difficult and labor-intensive.
The more usual way to do it was to set up fortified encampments opposite the main gates, and then keep patrols and pickets going around the perimeter.
This was less watertight, but ample to prevent large-scale reinforcement or resupply.
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