Starkadians On Imhotep

The Game of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

It was a brilliant move by Poul Anderson, so many volumes later, to show us where the Starkadians had been settled - on Imhotep. Diana Crowfeather interacts with Tigeries on land but not with the Seafolk because she does not go underwater. However, a Seafolk dance is shown on a screen in the market place. In a film adaptation of The Game of Empire, we should glimpse that dance in the background and remember the Seafolk from Ensign Flandry. Diana tells Axor that Admiral Flandry, when an ensign, had been on Starkad and had made a discovery that had led to the evacuation of a handful of Starkadians of both species. Thus, The Game of Empire is a sequel to Ensign Flandry as well as to The Day Of Their Return. CHAPTER ONE mentions Admiral Olaf Magnusson whose soon-to-be-announced rebellion will be the culmination of a scheme hatched by none other than Brechdan Ironrede and Aycharaych.

When a human drunk harasses Diana, her childhood friend, the Tigery, Kuzan, drops hand to knife and the drunk withdraws. Years ago, our future son-in-law, Ketlan, having said goodnight to our daughter, Aileen, was sitting on a wall, watching her walk down the "ginnel" or passageway to our street. Suddenly, he was challenged by two local Asian lads: "Why are you watching that girl? What do you mean by it?" Ketlan amicably explained that she and he were friends and that they had just said goodnight. Our community was protecting itself. Lancaster, like Imhotep, has recently welcomed refugees so I feel some cross-cosmic kinship with Imhotepans.