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Discuss this hot off the presses Review by @SpanishSpy
The point about length is good. A lot of ideas - like Earhart, RAF Ace - wouldn't sustain 400-pages-per-book quadrilogies but are perfect for novellas and shorts.
C'est la guerre.To be honest, I was very surprised and somewhat shocked that it ended with
her killed in such an abrupt manner
but I suppose it really makes sense given the context.
It's a lesser-known quote from High Flight, the same poem that a zillion others (including me) nicked "to slip the surly bonds of earth" from.Is there something I'm missing about the title?
It feels really clunky, but like, I'm just a scrub, so I assume that Harry Turtledove and his publishers are better at this than me. I suspect it's a reference I'm not getting.
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
Having Amelia Earhart as the eighth US Battle of Britain pilot as a premise is absolute twaddle of course (there were NO Eagle squadrons in the Battle of Britain, sorry Ben Affleck), even more unlikely than a Polish woman flying & fighting in 303 Squadron.
It still sounds interesting though.
A more believable, but less exciting role for Earhart would be ferrying US and Canadian aircraft across the Atlantic.
Ah. Many thanks. As the second half of a line in isolation, the clunking is perhaps to be expected.It's a lesser-known quote from High Flight, the same poem that a zillion orders (including me) nicked "to slip the surly bonds of earth" from.
Again I'd recommend reading it, because you seem to be basing your judgement on what you think ita about rather then its actual content.
Very clever, in fact, as "where never" actually acknowledges @Arthur_Phuxache's quibble about there being no US pilots in the BoB.
Sorry, I mistyped, I meant to say "no Eagle squadrons".There were seven of them. I can name five of them of the top of my head!
Sorry, I mistyped, I meant to say "no Eagle squadrons".
It's a lesser-known quote from High Flight, the same poem that a zillion orders (including me) nicked "to slip the surly bonds of earth" from.
I always joked that every single line of that one became an episode of "Andromeda" which is a slight exaggeration - they only used four or five lines from it ("The Widening Gyre", "Pitiless as the Sun", "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last", etc.) and they just had a lot of other episode titles from similar sources.I do like poems like that which seem almost designed to mine titles from. The Second Coming being another one.
@Gary Oswald was kind enough to send this to me yesterday.
I'll say here what I said on my Facebook page:
That noise you hear is my fanboy squee.