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I did not know this
Oct. 9th, 2012 11:44 amWilliam F. Buckley reviewed Simak's They Walked Like Men in the National Review in 1963. In the review he also made a reference to Fletcher Pratt.
Oct. 9th, 2012
The Harper regime's layoffs among food inspectors has produced the result they must have wanted, given how similar policies worked in Ontario under Harris:
Crippled inspection system facilitates shipping tainted Canadian meat around the world.
Crippled inspection system facilitates shipping tainted Canadian meat around the world.
The Foundation Trilogy: Part Four of Eight
Oct. 9th, 2012 11:35 pmFoundation: The General
Ambitious and loyal Imperial General Bel Riose stumbles over the existence of a deadly enemy of the Empire the Empire has no idea exists, the mysterious Foundation. Being loyal and energetic, he immediately begins to use what resources he has on hand -a fleet of ten aging and increasingly decrepit but still impressive ships - to reconquer the Foundation's worlds for the Empire. His request for more resources brings not more ships but the Emperor's evil vizier Brodrick, there to see if perhaps Bel Riose's ambitions are a danger to the State.
Two minor characters - a Trader named Devers and Ducem Barr, the son of the mad old patrician hermit who was so forthcoming to Mallow - undertake to sabotage Bel Riose and Broderick by delivering a factual but easily misinterpreted message from one man to the other about the situation on the front to Emperor Cleon II himself. The problem is Cleon only speaks to ten of the millions of people who ask to see him every day but with any luck the rustic patrician turncoat and his barbarian companion will be able to navigate through the twisty maze of imperial bureaucracy and the hosts of security forces so they can have a face to face with the most important man in the empire. This goes about as well as one might expect but they do manage to escape with their lives.
As it turns out, they could have stayed home and still enjoyed success. The logic of the empire at this time forces Cleon II to act as though Bel Riose and Broderick are plotting against him, as a talented, skillful general could easily take the throne for his own and waiting for proof would give the general time to act; it is rather sad that in fact Bel Riose is utterly loyal.
It is unfortunate that the one person the rather shouty Bel Riose reminds me of is Rimmer from Red Dwarf.
This is one of the first, if not the first, recapitulations of the career of famed Roman General Belisarius in SF. Bel Riose's career differs from Belisarius's in many ways: he is young when Cleon II turns on him, whereas Belisarius was 62 when he was tried and convicted for corruption (and later pardoned, which for all we know happened to Bel Riose as well). Belisarius enjoys considerable success in his career, even retaking much of the Western Empire but poor Bel Riose falls long before he can reach Terminus.
[It could be Bel Riose's arrest is analogous to what happened with Belisarius after he took Ravenna but it probably isn't. If his career does survive the unpleasantness, it does not do so in a way that inconveniences the Foundation)
One striking difference and one I might not mention if the series was not so male-centric: there is no analog in the Foundation universe for Theodora, Justinian's influential and talented wife.
The phrase "the summer planets" did catch my ear but I am going to assume it's a name based on their pleasant climates, like Greenland or "the Kindly Ones."
Ambitious and loyal Imperial General Bel Riose stumbles over the existence of a deadly enemy of the Empire the Empire has no idea exists, the mysterious Foundation. Being loyal and energetic, he immediately begins to use what resources he has on hand -a fleet of ten aging and increasingly decrepit but still impressive ships - to reconquer the Foundation's worlds for the Empire. His request for more resources brings not more ships but the Emperor's evil vizier Brodrick, there to see if perhaps Bel Riose's ambitions are a danger to the State.
Two minor characters - a Trader named Devers and Ducem Barr, the son of the mad old patrician hermit who was so forthcoming to Mallow - undertake to sabotage Bel Riose and Broderick by delivering a factual but easily misinterpreted message from one man to the other about the situation on the front to Emperor Cleon II himself. The problem is Cleon only speaks to ten of the millions of people who ask to see him every day but with any luck the rustic patrician turncoat and his barbarian companion will be able to navigate through the twisty maze of imperial bureaucracy and the hosts of security forces so they can have a face to face with the most important man in the empire. This goes about as well as one might expect but they do manage to escape with their lives.
As it turns out, they could have stayed home and still enjoyed success. The logic of the empire at this time forces Cleon II to act as though Bel Riose and Broderick are plotting against him, as a talented, skillful general could easily take the throne for his own and waiting for proof would give the general time to act; it is rather sad that in fact Bel Riose is utterly loyal.
It is unfortunate that the one person the rather shouty Bel Riose reminds me of is Rimmer from Red Dwarf.
This is one of the first, if not the first, recapitulations of the career of famed Roman General Belisarius in SF. Bel Riose's career differs from Belisarius's in many ways: he is young when Cleon II turns on him, whereas Belisarius was 62 when he was tried and convicted for corruption (and later pardoned, which for all we know happened to Bel Riose as well). Belisarius enjoys considerable success in his career, even retaking much of the Western Empire but poor Bel Riose falls long before he can reach Terminus.
[It could be Bel Riose's arrest is analogous to what happened with Belisarius after he took Ravenna but it probably isn't. If his career does survive the unpleasantness, it does not do so in a way that inconveniences the Foundation)
One striking difference and one I might not mention if the series was not so male-centric: there is no analog in the Foundation universe for Theodora, Justinian's influential and talented wife.
The phrase "the summer planets" did catch my ear but I am going to assume it's a name based on their pleasant climates, like Greenland or "the Kindly Ones."