(i) Flandry and Kossara are concealed among the Merseians who march on the Dennitzan Parliament - the idea of Flandry on a political march, let alone one composed of Merseians!
(ii) In the Cathedral of St Clement, a priest chants behind a screen while the future St. Kossara lies in state and her bereaved fiance, Flandry, effectively prays to the future saint, requesting a sign...
(iii) The italicized concluding passage that becomes a prayer:
"In glory did Gospodar Bodin ride home.
"Maidens danced to crown him with flowers..."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 505.
Read it in full here.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm a bit surprised, didn't some of the other Flandry have highlights worthy of admiration? They certainly did for me, esp. the opening paragraphs of A CIRCUS OF HELLS and HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE. And the opening chapter of the latter story had Aycharaych's wry comments about how he thought the Merseian high command's hopes about the predicted date of Terra's fall were naive and rather touching.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It's purely a matter of personal choice, of course. I was grabbed by those three passages in A KNIGHT...
Paul.
One notable feature of KNIGHT is that Flandry lacks much of the cynical detachment he had in other settings.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: True, it is a matter of taste which parts of a story will esp. "grab" you.
Mr. Stirling: As you yourself pointed out elsewhere, the passing of time often comes with changes in how we think about many things. Flandry's perspectives would have changed or even matured in the years since A CIRCUS OF HELLS to A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: also, in KNIGHT Flandry develops a personal interest in the outcome -- and a personal grief, by the end.
It's not just the "Great Game" to him anymore.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, because of how he came to love Kossara Vymezal. Albeit, I still regret how, years before, Flandry could not feel that way about Aline Chang-Lei.
I agree as well that Flandry enjoyed his work in Intelligence. But I don't think the Great Game aspect was all that motivated him. He really did care about thwarting plots against the Empire and preventing wars and invasions, with all the harm such things cause.
Ad astra! Sean
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