Friday 3 June 2016

Rufinus And -

As I approach the end of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, I think of more to post about it so maybe I will never reach the end? This is our Valhalla:

an endless blog;
also, a virtual Ys, Time Patrol and Terran Empire.

Corentinus reminded us of two other gangrels: Wodan and Gandalf. Who does Rufinus remind us of? He spies in Hivernia, returning with military intelligence that Gratillonius puts to good use but that the Roman authorities dismiss. He asks his commander, Gratillonius, for a roving commission:

"'Give me a ship and crew in early spring.'"
-Chapter XVII, section 1, p. 332.

Who else is Rufinus but the Dominic Flandry of the fourth century? However, in this series, our central character is not the secret agent but his commander/imperator, Gratillonius, who thus becomes the equivalent of the Emperor, Hans Molitor.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And not only does commentary on the works of Poul Anderson seem endless, the works of other writers worthy of being compared with him are discussed here. E.g., H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Olaf Stapledon, C.S. Lewis, Robert Heinlein, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, S.M. Stirling, etc.

Sean