Anderson wrote action-adventure fiction and more. In fact, a lot more. However, the action-adventure element remained in his works. "Brave To Be A King" includes two quite lengthy fight scenes but they are well-integrated into the plot. Having successfully passed off Keith Denison as Cyrus the Great, the Chiliarch Harpagus wants to prevent Manse Everard from taking Denison back to his homeland and also wants to appropriate one of the mysterious "engines." Hence, Everard twice fights for his life. When I first read
Guardians Of Time, I was still at school and tried to imagine the second fight scene coming out differently but in fact it is just right for what happens in the story. Everard kills Harpagus in that timeline but then changes the timeline. Everard and Denison see the real Cyrus accompanied by Kobad, Croesus and a Harpagus who knows nothing of the events that both Everard and Denison remember. This is like a fulfilment of the sf tradition of time travellers changing the past. Anderson makes it work in multiple concretely realized historical periods.
7 comments:
There's an interesting bit of historical comparison in one of those fight scenes in BRAVE TO BE A KING. Everard is armed Greek-style, and notes the advantage it gives him in foot-combat over the Persians, and also that their fighting style lacks disciplined coordination, which would fatally handicap them in the Greek wars to come.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And for most of their history didn't the Persians focus on cavalry, not infantry? Steady infantry, competently led, could fend off cavalry charges. First, by the use of pikes and then later, with muskets and bayonets. As happened at Waterloo when British infantry squares fought off the French cavalry.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: spears will do for cavalry. Horses are careful about running into things, especially sharp pointies.
One of the interesting things about doing THE GENERAL series with Dave Drake was that the cavalry in that were mounted on (essentially) very large dogs. And dogs are pack carnivores; they can and will just jump in and pile on in a fight. Different dynamic.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Horses afraid of sharp pointies? As well they should be!
And I remember how aggressive those very large war dogs were in your GENERAL books. Quite willing to pile into a fight!
Ad astra! Sean
Wolves, like most social predators, fight each other a lot. Dogs have kept that willingness; they identify their people as their "pack".
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The pug we had when I was younger certainly behaved like that to me and my father!
Ad astra! Sean
The domestication of the dog was probably easier because at the time both wolves and humans were pack-hunting animals.
Post a Comment