Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

[james_davis_nicoll]

A moment of foolish charity drags impoverished Altair Jones into a deadly struggle.

Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

Comments

[petrea_mitchell]

I assume she was merely eccentric back in the 1980s

You assume correctly, to the best of my recollection.

Some of the songs she was singing back then were key to the beginning of my development of a left-wing social consciousness, and I don't mean in a reverse-psychology kind of way.

[patrick_morris_miller]

The impression I got seeing her at cons then was merely 'colorful'. Later when she had progressed to eccentric, I could still have a nice hour hanging out with her between panels. And when she told me I did a 'fairly good' job singing on tune I had rarely felt more complimented...

And damn her eyes, she wrote at least a third of my repertoire.

filk’s own Ezra Pound

The comparison I generally make is to MAR Barker, though he managed to keep his mask on until well after he was dead (with the knowing assistance of high-ups in the Tékumel community). JKR is also analogous.

[patrick_morris_miller]

Some day I'd like to see a flurry of comments on a review of mine that wasn't about an avoidable typo.

This was my very first Cherryh!

(And while not my intro to filk, the surrounding songs were a big momentum boost in that direction for me.)

[goljerp]

One thing that's interesting to note is that this is very firmly (if only in the after-story material) set in the Union/Alliance universe: Merovingen was a Union colony, and it was abandoned because of the Gehenna doctrine (or, at least, that was the excuse given when Union didn't feel like getting into a war over a minor planet in the middle of nowhere).

[patrick_morris_miller]

Oh, it was quite definitely abandoned because the sharrh said they'd kill any human who didn't leave - then made a damn good effort at doing just that.

The Gehenna doctrine at that point was no longer being paid heed to by either Union or Alliance.

[goljerp]

Right: Union could have fought a war over the planet, but didn't want to, so they dusted off the Gehenna doctrine, pointed at it and said, "Hey, Sharrh, we totally respect you, let us know if/when you want to talk again, we're outta here."