Priests And Detectives

Searching for Montalbano, I also found the Saint and Father Brown because the authors' names are Camilleri, Charteris and Chesterton. Like Poul Anderson's Trygve Yamamura, Father Brown is a detective and, like Anderson's Axor, is a Catholic priest but how different in both cases. These examples demonstrate the comprehensiveness of language. Although the terms, "detective" and "priest," are specific and different in meaning, they are general and abstract enough to apply to such different characters in such different historical contexts, especially if we lose the adjective, "Catholic," but keep the noun, "priest." 

There were priests long before there were detectives. If the human race survives, then the same terms will be applicable in even more diverse contexts in future - will aliens convert to Christianity? - and will retain a historical significance even if the functions of detective and priest cease to exist.

Detectives can be police, private or amateur. Thus, Yamamura is private whereas Brown is amateur and their milieus could hardly be more different.

Miscommunications In Conversations

See Miscommunications. 

In The Day Of Their Return, when Chunderban Desai receives Colonel Mattu Luuksson from Orcus, Desai realizes that he is tapping his cigarette holder on the ashtray and stops. 

When I interviewed a school pupil, there was a bothersome crumpling sound while she spoke but not while I spoke. I realized that, under the table, she was holding the paper slip that had informed her of the interview. She crumpled it only when speaking.

Desai does not know whether Mattu's frown means anger or concentration. In CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength, Dimble and Studdock converse. Trying to be charitable toward the younger man, Dimble adopts a fixed facial expression which Studdock misinterprets as disapproval.

I could tell many stories of conversational miscommunications but perhaps they would take us off the point if there is one.

(There is a Father Brown TV series with really good interactions between Brown and the continuing villain, Flambeau. Brown has not heard Flambeau's confession - yet.)

Other Authors' Characters

Poul Anderson contributed to several other authors' series and, in at least one volume (see "Multiverse: The Contributors," here), other authors have contributed to his. Can one author write another author's character well? It can be done.

Anderson wrote detective fiction and also Catholic characters, including clergy, so it is not wandering too far off the reservation to cite the current British Father Brown series with original scripts about Chesterton's characters. (Sheila was at University with one of the actors in this image.)

In one episode, Flambeau morally blackmails Brown to help him steal a jeweled cross that is a Coronation present from the Pope to the Queen of England but all's well that ends well. A very dramatic Brown-Flambeau story not written by Chesterton.

The next post will, or at least should, return to Anderson's The Stars Are Also Fire.

Starting "Sentiment, Inc."

"Sentiment, Inc."

Different, again. A contemporary short story about romantic relationships but with an sf premise to which the first attached cover image might give some clue although I am not going to read any further into it this evening and will probably not be on the computer tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Here is yet another early short story with a remarkable number of cover illustrations as I might demonstrate.

I will shortly watch TV news. We have been without a TV for just over a year - until Mike, whom I have mentioned somewhere on this blog, fixed the aerial.

GK Chesterton's Father Brown was one of the many fictional detectives to come after Sherlock Holmes. A British TV adaptation of Brown has an offshoot, Sister Boniface, about a detective nun. She was on while I was posting about the science of Poul Anderson's "Security," an aspect of my immediate environment of which blog readers were obviously completely unaware!

I will return to The Hound Of The Baskervilles before retiring.

Laterz.

Detectives

The next thing on TV is a regular series of GK Chesterton's Father Brown albeit with original scripts. Poul Anderson wrote Catholic priests and a detective series although not both together.

There are specialist detective fiction bookshops just as there are specialist fsf bookshops. Presumably Anderson's Trygve Yamamura novels are on sale in the former. Does anyone know Anderson only as a crime fiction author?

One way to diversify detective novels is to make the detective unusual:

the first consulting detective;
a British aristocrat;
a retired Belgian policeman;
an English spinster;
a Catholic priest;
a Japanese-Norwegian San Franciscan Buddhist ex-policeman;
a Sicilian Police Inspector.

Probably every interesting variation has been imagined by now. I like Yamamura and am closer to his wavelength than to Brown's.

Heroes And Villains

Poul Anderson did not write a lot of heroes and villains fiction, did he? Dominic Flandry has Aycharaych and Manse Everard has Merau Varagan. Is that Varagan in the center of the image? In The Corridors Of Time, Brann of the Rangers is initially presented as a bad guy and even answers exactly the same physical description as Varagan except for eye color. See here. However, Anderson shows us good sides of Brann - as he usually does with his heroes' adversaries.

Fictional villains do not often see the error of their ways. Father Brown converts Flambeau but this is unique - I think. Aycharaych, if he survived, would no longer have had any reason to continue working for the Merseians but that is not the same thing. We never see him regretting all the suffering he has caused.

Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's Geoffrey Niles does start to see the error of his ways:

"It had seemed so romantic, help the poor against the Spartan aristocracy, overthrow the tyrants, but the Spartan kings weren't tyrants. Not at all.

"He thought of what Skilly had ordered. Kill all the prisoners. His troops would have obeyed, but of course he hadn't transmitted that order.

"I was on the wrong side. This isn't Lawrence of Arabia. No romance here. This isn't anything I want to be part of."
-Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling, The Prince (New York, 2002), p. 847.

It is good to see a character who has got things wrong starting to get them right. Does anything like this happen in Anderson's many works?

Lastly, the Smallville TV series presents two very interesting character transformations:

Clark Kent's dishonesty gradually transforms Lex Luthor from his friend into his adversary;
meanwhile, Lex's father, Lionel, somehow changes from a really bad guy into a really good guy, prepared to keep Clark's secret and even to sacrifice himself for Martha Kent.

I really wish that Poul Anderson had applied his skills as a hard sf writer to a Superman novel.

The Dead

In the Cathedral where his dead fiancee lies in state, Dominic Flandry asks her for a sign but does not believe that he receives one. Some might interpret the voice of the priest chanting as a sign. I have just watched a TV episode in which Father Brown's adversary, Hercule Flambeau, narrowly escapes the death penalty. What matters is how we have lived and are living. We imagine hereafters in which we are judged, assessed, condemned etc for how we have lived. What matters now is how we are living now.

In haste. Think about it.

Looking Back

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).

Despite my uncertainty at the time, "li" (p. 208) (see here) is clearly used in the sense of a unit of distance.

"'...by river, lake, portage...the great Dnieper and its falls - hardest of the portages...'" (p. 149)

It occurred to me that I had only a vague idea of what was meant by "portage." However, the meaning, "carrying," can be deduced from the word and its context and is confirmed by google.

"Flambeau flare..." (p. 305) - another word that should have been clear but wasn't fully. (GK Chesterton created an excellent criminal mastermind/continuing villain, "Flambeau," who has the added merit that he is converted to the cause of good by his opponent, Father Brown, and becomes the latter's companion/assistant, as if Moriarty became Watson.)

"...a chromolithograph gazed from its frame..." (p. 312)

I had read of lithographs, without a clear understanding of them, but not chromolithographs.

"'I saw the Cherokees at the end of their Trail of Tears...'" (p. 291)

This was obviously a historical reference that it made sense to google.

Surely Hanno, originally from Tyre, would be too dark-skinned to pass as English? (p. 294)

"'...- native church...'" (p. 312) Peregrino, an immortal, says, "'I found a new faith among the Kiowas and I'm bringing it to the Nermernuth. Do you know the peyote cactus? It opens a way, it quiets the heart -'" (p. 292)

Does Peregrino mean "found" or founded"? He refers to the Native American Church. Peregrino, a fictitious character, helps Quanah Parker, a historical figure. In return, "'Quanah's covered for me...'" (p. 313), which explains why Peregrino's immortality never came to light.

A Future History Within A Future History

"The Troublemakers."

When a spaceship is in space for long enough, there is history inside it as well as back in the Solar System which it has left far behind. The Pioneer is launched in 2126 and we read about events that occur on board in 2206. Evan Friday who is only twenty-four in 2206 will be sixty-seven when the Pioneer arrives at Alpha Centauri in 2249. Friday studies ship history and I am amazed at how much detail Poul Anderson has fitted into this single story. See History In The Pioneer. I do not need to summarize all that again.

This evening, having seen Father Brown on TV, it only remains to return to the adventures of the Sicilian police inspector, Salvo Montalbano. Occasionally, Montalbano says or does or something that resonates with the fictional futures of Poul Anderson but hopefully not this evening.

"Good Eating," to quote Robert Heinlein's generation ship story.

"Expansion to your Ego," to quote Brian Aldiss' generation ship story.

"High is heaven and holy," to quote Poul Anderson's, and sf's, best future history series.

Detective Fiction

Anyone who reads a lot of Poul Anderson leads some particular lifestyle (in the case of the present blogger, retired) and also reads other authors. Consequently, over time, some other stuff should could come through in a blog. We can focus on details within Anderson's works but can also appreciate those works in their wider literary contexts of the Bible, Eddas, Sagas, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle, HG Wells, Olaf Stapledon, Robert Heinlein, James Blish etc. 

Detective fiction is relevant to Poul Anderson Appreciation, first, because Anderson wrote three novels and at least one short story about a fictional detective, Trygve Yamamura, and would have continued to write detective fiction if sf had not paid better and, secondly, because of the Holmesian influence on several of his works. (An alternative literary history: Anderson writes a long Trygve Yamamura series and many other detective novels and only a few sf works!)

In the course of blogging, we have mentioned some other fictional detectives, e.g., Father Brown and Inspector Montalbano. (Scroll down.) Here is one more before we return to Ythrians, maybe, this evening. Today, while out for a walk, we bought for £10 in a charity shop a boxed set of all thirteen Inspector Morse novels by Colin Dexter. That might constitute my late night other reading for a long time to come. Early in the opening novel, a minor viewpoint character compares Morse unfavourably to Holmes and Poirot. And Holmes referred disparagingly to Poe's Dupin. Detective fiction authors always acknowledge their predecessors. British ITV dramatized Morse and cleverly created both a sequel and a prequel.

As Kevin, whom I meet in the Gregson Institute, once said, "It's endless, i'n't it?"

Detectives

Poul Anderson, primarily known as a science fiction writer:

was a Sherlock Holmes fan;

wrote detective fiction;

sometimes synthesized detective fiction with sf, e.g., see here;

at least once, synthesized detective fiction with fantasy.

So are Anderson fans also Holmes fans? And do they read other detective fiction? If so, which authors?

I have read:

all of Homes;

a lot of Montalbano;

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy;

Anderson's Trygve Yamamura Trilogy and one Yamamura short story -

- and, of course, a few other novels, e.g., I highly recommend A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine.

However, no way am I a fan of detective fiction in general. Once, I found a bookshop that sold nothing else and had no interest in browsing through the shelves.

(Sheila watches Father Brown on television.)

Confession

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VI.

Before a battle, a priest stands in a booth to hear confessions and every soldier receives Communion. Only the allied Turks do not fear clerical disapproval. Lucas confesses a few sins of anger or envy and is given a penance of twenty Paternosters:

"Pater noster qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie; et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos demittibus debitoribus nostris, et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a malo. Amen."

What else do we know about confession in fiction? 

In a novel by John Gardner, Moriarty commits an ultimate blasphemy by posing as a Jesuit priest in order to hear a Mafia boss's confession!

On TV, Fr. Brown, in the confessional box, hears a cheerful voice proclaim, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It is so long since I have done this that I do not remember the procedure!" Recognizing the voice, Brown says, "Hercule." His enemy, Flambeau, has come not to make a confession but to impart some information. For this, they exit the confessional and Flambeau stretches out on a church bench.

Back to Lucas:

"Now, with spears awaiting him beyond the mountain, he felt a sudden wish to be genuinely at peace with God." (p. 99)

However, what does trouble him is not guilt but doubts and lostness. When the Host is elevated at dawn, he is not awed but alone. That strikes me as a good way to approach the ultimate but what do I know?

God and Alien In Anderson's Technic Civilization by Sean M Brooks

Anyone who has read Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories and novels (set in the eras of the Polesotechnic League and the Terran Empire) will recall how, from time to time, mention is made both of the continuing influence of Christianity and how some non human rational beings converted to Christianity.  Among other things, it means Anderson took as one of his premises the Church deciding that aliens could be baptized.  Some stories also show Buddhism becoming popular with various aliens.

I should cite some evidence to back what I said in the preceding paragraph.  In Chapter VII of A KNIGHT  OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, as Dominic Flandry was landing on the planet Diomedes, this is how the non human port master at the town of Thursday Landing was described: "He was an autochthon, a handsome creature by any standards.  The size of a short man, he stood on backward-bending, talon footed legs.  Brown-furred, the slim body ran out to a broad tail which ended in a fleshy rudder; at its middle, arms and hands were curiously anthropoid; above a massive chest, a long neck bore a round head--high, ridged brow, golden eyes with nictitating membranes, blunt-nosed black muzzled face with fangs and whiskers suggestive of a cat, no external ears but a crest of muscle on top of the skull. From his upper shoulders grew the bat wings, their six-meter span now folded.  He wore a belt to support a pouch, a brassard of authority, and, yes, a crucifix."

Note that last point, the Diomedean was carrying a crucifix, a very well known and prominent Christian symbol.  For any person to do so plainly means he believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Almost certainly, this port master was a baptized Christian.  I also got the impression that Flandry did not think it unusually surprising, in context, to meet a non human with a crucifix.

A prominent character in THE GAME OF EMPIRE is the draco-centauroid non human from the planet Woden named Francis Xavier Axor, a convert to Christianity and Catholic priest. Fr Axor said he studied archaeology in his youth, mentioning off planet scholars coming to excavate the "Foredweller" ruins found on Woden. Axor and his colleagues in the Galilean Order then tied those archaeological excavations to speculations about the Incarnation of Christ occurring on other planets.

When I first read THE GAME OF EMPIRE in 1985, the Galilean Order immediately reminded me of the Jesuits, because of Axor's comment about the Galileans interest in the sciences.  The Jesuits have produced many scholars and scientists.  The Augustinians and Benedictines also came to mind.

Readers who have read the first chapter of THE GAME OF EMPIRE may be reminded of C.S. Lewis' essay "Religion and Rocketry," which can be found in the collection called THE WORLD'S LAST NIGHT AND OTHER ESSAYS (Harvest/HBJ).  A few quotes from that paper seems in order.

From page 86:

If there are species, and rational species, other than man, are any, or all of them, like us, fallen?  This is the point non-Christians always seem to forget. They seem to think the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity.  But of course it implies just the reverse; a particular demerit and depravity.  No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician.  Christ died for man precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.  Notice what waves of utterly unwarranted hypothesis these critics of Christianity want us to swim through.  We are now supposing the fall of hypothetically rational creatures whose mere existence is hypothetical!

Lewis was absolutely correct to say that Our Lord became Incarnate as man NOT because of any merit on our part, but because of our depravity.  His comments reminded me of what Fr. Axor said in Chapter 1 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE:

"For see you, young person, some three thousand standard years have passed since Our Lord Jesus Christ walked upon Terra and brought the offer of salvation to fallen man.  Subsequently, upstart humankind has gone forth into the light-years, and with Technic civilization has traveled faith to race after race after race."

Many things are left unstated here, as part of a background both Fr. Axor and Diana Crowfeather understood and took for granted.  Knowledge of the existence of Christianity and its beliefs, a faster than light means of reaching the stars (else it simply would not be possible for mankind to both settle other planets and spread the Faith), the rise of an interstellar civilization enabling these things to happen, non human rational beings coming to believe in Christ, etc.

Fr. Axor goes on to say:

"About such independently space faring beings as the Ymirites, one dares say nothing.  They are too alien.  It may be that they are not fallen and thus have no need of the Word.  But painfully plain it is that every oxygen-breathing species ever encountered is in no state of grace, but prone to sin, error, and death."

I disagree with Fr. Axor's comments about the Ymirites.  The way a Ymirite tried to kill Dominic Flandry (see Chapters IV and V of WE CLAIM THESE STARS!) on the planet Jupiter makes me extremely doubtful Ymirites are un-Fallen.  I do agree that hydrogen breathers living on high pressure/gravity worlds like Jupiter are too alien for oxygen breathers to easily or often interact with.  And the comment about every oxygen breathing race encountered by mankind being "prone to sin, error, and death" has many theological implications.  Which led me to the next quote from Lewis' essay "Religion and Rocketry" (page 86 of THE WORLD'S LAST NIGHT AND OTHER ESSAYS).

If all of them (and surely all is a long shot) or any of them have fallen have they been denied Redemption by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ?  For of course it is no very new idea that the eternal Son may, for all we know, have been incarnate in other worlds than earth and so saved other races than ours.

And this ties in with Fr. Axor's quest as he explained to Diana Crowfeather.  I mean his search for evidence that Christ became incarnate to other races than mankind. It's interesting to note how Lewis' comment about Christ becoming incarnate on other worlds is "no very new idea."  The essay I've been quoting from was first published in 1958--which means SOME speculative theologians have wondered about such ideas before then.  Again, I'll quote Fr. Axor (Chapter 1 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE).

"Now Our Lord was born once upon Terra, and charged those who came after with carrying the gospel over the planet.  But what of other planets? Were they to wait for human missionaries?  Or have some of them, at least, been granted the glory of their own Incarnation?  It is not a matter on which most churches have ventured to dogmatize.  Not only are the lives, the souls, so different from world to world, but here and there one nevertheless does find religions which look strangely familiar. Coincidence?  Parallel development?  Or a deeper mystery?"

I would argue that the command of Christ to preach the Gospel to ALL nations in Matthew 28.16-20  includes as a legitimate interpretation the inclusion of non human rational beings on other worlds who have fallen.  And I realize this means first getting a FTL method of reaching the stars.  Fr. Axor's comments above brought to mind these remarks of Lewis in his essay "Religion and Rocketry" (pages 87-88 of THE WORLD'S LAST NIGHT AND OTHER ESSAYS):

It might turn out that the redemption of other species differed from ours by working through ours.  There is a hint of something like this in St. Paul (Romans 8.19-23) when he says that the whole creation is longing and waiting to be delivered from some kind of slavery, and that the deliverance will occur only when we, we Christians, fully enter upon our sonship to God and exercise our "glorious liberty."

On the conscious level I believe that he was thinking only of our own Earth: of animal, and probably vegetable, life on Earth being "renewed" or glorified at the glorification of man in Christ.  But it is perhaps possible--it is not necessary--to give his words a cosmic meaning.  It may be that Redemption, starting with us, is to work from us and through us.

These words caused me to wonder if someday, assuming a FTL drive is invented (as I so strongly hope happens!), that the Catholic Church might preach the Gospel to aliens whose races have fallen.  Fr. Axor commented above that all known oxygen breathing species are "prone to sin, error, and death."  In other words, fallen.  I've also wondered if Poul Anderson read the essay by C.S. Lewis I've been quoting.  Much of what Anderson has Fr. Axor saying in Chapter 1 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE parallels Lewis' comments.

It is my thought that certain texts in the Bible could be interpreted as supporting the idea Christianity can be rightly preached or offered to fallen aliens.  One being Matthew 28.16-20.  But I wish to take a closer look here at Romans 8.19-23: "For the eager longing of creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God.  For creation was made subject to vanity--not by its own will but by reason of him who made it subject--in hope, because creation itself also will be delivered from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.  For we know all creation groans and travails in pain until now.  And not only it, but we ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit--we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption as sons, the redemption of our body."

It can easily be seen how Lewis could speculate that this text from Romans could be interpreted as meaning that a fallen creation (cosmos) awaits the revelation from Earth of the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Redemption wrought there by Christ.  And that deliverance from this slavery to corruption awaits the offering to aliens of the Gospel of Christ.

It is necessary to immediately stress that this, like the Incarnation of Christ coming among men, does NOT mean any special merit on our part.  As Lewis immediately said after the text I quoted above: "This would no doubt give man a pivotal position.  But such a position need not imply any superiority in us or any favouritism in God."  No, it would mean an ADDITIONAL duty laid on the Church.  Lewis was also careful to speculate in his essay that the vast distances of the other stars and planets from Earth might be a means of quarantining mankind from un fallen non human races--so fallen mankind could not corrupt them.

As Brother Guy Consolmagno wrote in his booklet INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE? (Catholic Truth Society: 2005, pages 33 and 37), the authors of the Bible did not have trouble accepting the existence of non human rational beings.  After all, the angels are not human and they certainly are intelligent!  Dr. Consolmagno uses Psalm 89.6-7a as one example: "The heavens praise your marvels, LORD, your loyalty in the assembly of the holy ones.  Who in the skies ranks with the LORD?"  And Brother Guy quotes John 10.14-16: "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.  And other sheep I have that are not of this fold.  Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."  Which makes it easy to think that the sheep not of this "fold" (Earth, mankind) could be intelligent beings on other worlds who have fallen.

I hope readers will be patient as I bring in yet another quote here!  This being from the "Quick Answers" section of the July/August 2000 issue of THIS ROCK (page 45), a Catholic apologetics magazine.  And NO, I was not the one who sent in this question!
(Smiles)

[Q] Is the Catholic Church meant only for the human race?  What if we encounter other intelligent beings in the universe at some point--are we to spread the Catholic faith to them?

[A] It would probably require an ecumenical council to answer your questions.  While the whole area is awfully speculative, here are some considerations you might find useful.  First, there would not seem to be anything wrong with sharing the Christian faith with aliens--that is, telling them what God did on our planet (e.g., becoming incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth).  Conversely, there would seem to be nothing wrong with them sharing with us what God has done on their planet--though we would have to look to the (human) Catholic Church in determining the authenticity of their claims, since it is this Church which has our pastoral care.

Second, any species we encounter may not need the sacraments, since its members may never have fallen from grace.  Or God may have made provisions for their salvation in another way.  Or they may be psychologically configured the way angels are, such that if they fall they are incapable of repenting.  The big question is whether baptism--the gateway to the other sacraments and to membership in the Church--can be given to non-human rational beings.  We haven't had to face this question because on earth we are the only rational beings.  Before arriving at a decision on this question--and in emergency situations only--the Church might allow conditional baptism.  That is, if a dying alien professed belief in Christ and a desire to be baptized, one might use the formula, "If you are capable of receiving baptism, I baptize you in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

This is far too brief a treatment of the subtle and respectful way Poul Anderson treated religion in his Technic History stories.  Especially when I consider how, due to his skill as a writer, that Anderson was able to bring in such ideas without them overwhelming the rest of the stories he set them in.  For example, I have not discussed how Anderson speculated on what might happen as humans and non humans alike affected each other as their different religious ideas and beliefs made contact in stories such as "The Three Cornered Wheel," "The Problem of Pain," or "The Season of Forgiveness."  This essay should be understood as showing how, centuries later under the Terran Empire, speculations of the kind discussed above might reasonably spring from the initial contacts described in the stories I listed.  First, that Christianity might be offered to non humans; second, that both humans and non humans might then wonder whether Christ became incarnate on other worlds besides Terra.

Sean M. Brooks

Moral Change

The moral of much series fiction is that the villains are irredeemable - because they have to return as villains in later episodes. I am interested in the processes by which people, including you and me, not just fictional characters, can or might change for the better:

Fr Brown converts Flambeau;

in Smallville, not only does the friendly Lex Luthor become ruthless but also his amoral and manipulative father, Lionel, becomes concerned and self-sacrificing;

Poul Anderson's Aycharaych loses the motivation that had made him an artist of deception and manipulation;

SM Stirling's William Walker does not see other people as real but suppose something did happen to make him "realize" one of his victims and start to care about what he was doing?

Rogue Sword, PROLOGUE, Continued II

Rogue Sword, PROLOGUE.

"When the fleet neared the Lido, [Lucas] discerned other craft..." (p. 16)

Merchant ships sail to Venice from:

Dalmatia;
the eastern Mediterranean;
the Black Sea;
Iceland;
Cathay;
Saracen lands;
Genoa.

For some of us, perhaps, a reference to "...the hated Genoese..." (ibid.) recalls:

Who knows how oft with squat and noisy gun,
Questing brown slaves or Syrian oranges,
The pirate Genoese
Hell-raked them till they rolled	10
Blood, water, fruit and corpses up the hold.

-copied from here

- but the Genoese in Lucas' time would not have been able to "rake" anyone.

The knight who challenges Lucas speaks the Venetian patois with a Catalonian accent. (p. 17) He inquires about his missing servant but Lucas responds that he would not trust the latter:

"'...to say a truthful Credo.'" (p. 17)

Lucas' Venetian father was stationed at the mercantile center at Canea on Crete.

Lucas' Venetian master had caught Lucas with his wife on returning from "'...an entertainment at the Rialto.'" (p. 19)

Now, what news on the Rialto?
-copied from here. 

The Catalan knight, being one of those "...haughty nobles of Iberia...," (ibid.) is merely amused to hear of a Venetian merchant's discomfiture.

This is a dense PROLOGUE but that is what we have come to expect from Andersonian texts.

Life On Jupiter II

See Life On Jupiter.

Because high mountains are rare, Jovian life has not had time to adapt to them. Theor climbs with all six limbs over rattling talus slopes - another indication of how Earth-like this version of Jupiter is. I tried to find an image of talus with as little life as possible.

Ammonia vapor blown from the sea condenses into rivers. Cloud banks are brown, onsy or tawr and Theor's feelers detect unfamiliar taste-odors. Thus, three senses, two combined.

A friendly voice on the communicator would have comforted Theor. I think that about mobile phones. Texting a friend is like praying, knowing that the prayer is heard and might be answered.

On the subject of prayer as such, a Mormon missionary advised me to ask God the Father in the name of His Son for the truth on religious matters so I did, before meditating. What answer I received is between me and God, of course.

Heroes And Villains

Four classic pairs:

Holmes and Moriarty;
Bond and Blofeld; (and here)
Dominic Flandry and Aycharaych;
Athelstane King and Count Ignatieff.

Holmes, Moriarty, Bond and Blofeld are universally known, the two sf pairs less so. My point is that King and Ignatieff are worthy of inclusion on this list.

King gradually learns that he has a major adversary:

Ibrahim Khan reveals that a tall white fakir wearing an eye-patch paid him to kill King;
King learns that, a generation earlier, a fakir with one blue eye and one brown eye had preached jihad and killed his, King's, father;
when King meets an adversary with an eye-patch turned up above a blue left eye, that man introduces himself as Count Vladimir Obromovich Ignatieff and they immediately try to kill each other;
Ignatieff is indeed evil, a Devil-worshiping cannibal.