The house was gloriously quiet and still today, allowing me to get back to World War 3.3. As I expected, I wasn’t able to spin up from nothing to seven hours of two-fisted manuscript punching. But I managed four hours of concentrated work, and I’m gonna take that as a win.
The Drawing of the Dark is in my top five favorite books of all time! I read it around the time it was published and its mix of fantasy and history was heady stuff for my younger self. It was really the first fantasy book that (for me) felt like it was for grownups. I reread it every few years and am always amazed how well it holds up. I was going to read it this fall but some damn author named Birmingham compelled me to reread his World War series so I could have a clue what was going on.
If anyone does turn up that Philby, Burgess and Maclean ( I never remember the other two in the Cambridge 5) were mentioned earlier just have this scene appear as thought bubble by one of the unnamed Cambridge Five somewhere in the future.
No wonder it was slow going, the pen is in the wrong hand!
Kim Philby. Huh. Have you read Declare by Tim Powers?
It was pretty damn good, but I reckon The Drawing of the Dark is still his best book.
I love these modern historical fantasy novels. I just finished the Milkweed trilogy by Ian Tregillis, which was pretty great as well.
The Drawing of the Dark is in my top five favorite books of all time! I read it around the time it was published and its mix of fantasy and history was heady stuff for my younger self. It was really the first fantasy book that (for me) felt like it was for grownups. I reread it every few years and am always amazed how well it holds up. I was going to read it this fall but some damn author named Birmingham compelled me to reread his World War series so I could have a clue what was going on.
Didn't Philby help Otto Scorzeny once he landed in britain and went to kill Churchill, who was saved by Prince Harry?
Yes.
Mr Birmingham what happened to your cursive writing beaten into you at school? This capitals thing must be hard going!
They are indeed. that’s why I use them. If I’m going to slow down by handwriting the copy I’m going to slow right the fuck down.
If anyone does turn up that Philby, Burgess and Maclean ( I never remember the other two in the Cambridge 5) were mentioned earlier just have this scene appear as thought bubble by one of the unnamed Cambridge Five somewhere in the future.
JB if I remember right Philby was in Designated Targets and mentioned in Stalins Hammer trilogy but I can't remember which one, maybe cairo?
In Designated Targets he had fled on news of the future visitors and helped the Soviets in an attack on Harry and Churchill I think
He was directed by the Smedlovs to assist Skorzany in the attempted assassination of Churchill, foiled by Prince Harry.
His cover was blown and he was hiding out.
Poifect
JB, do you not have an electronic copy of the whole Axis of Time series that you could have searched yourself?
Yeah. I fed it to the AI. If you think about it it makes sense to do a proper search for each of those three names would be like a nine step process.
Ah, thank you. That makes sense. I am not up to speed with using Ai.