Inspector Garanpo

[Stalker]

Reading Turtledove's final book of mega-series "World War - Colonization" "Homeward Bound" I run into an interesting character, a Lizard-cop, inspector Garanpo trying to trace ginger-smuggling from Admiral Peary down to Home.
That's a very shrewd male playing noodle and his manner of speech, his habits looked very familiar to me and that it suddenly struck me - why, of course, that's Lieutenant Colombo, Peter Falk under Lizard's scales...
And Turtledove really makes a hint to that: G-C, alveolar R-palatal L, plosive devoiced P- plosive voiced B... Garanpo - Colombo...
Has that also occurred to anybody?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Can't say it had, but it makes me wonder how many others are hidden away.

[Stalker]

OK, cannot find any more massive allusions except for, probably, Rescuing Private Renfall in this book but I also remember quite an identifiable event in S.M. Stirling ISoT-3, "Oceans of Eternity". I mean the Battle of O'Rourke's Ford (even in the name). It's almost in every detail identical to the Battle of Rorke's Drift during Zulu War.
Alston's maneuver at the battle with the Tartessians at Nantucket looks very much like Nelson's maneuver at Trafalgar but the trilogy seems to be rich with allusions to historical events I have yet to identify.
But S.M. Stirling seems not to hide at all that one of his main characters, Ian Arnstein, historian, is nobody else but Harry Turtledove himself.

[Stalker]

Ah, with the ISoT I simply missed that but now I am sure that the name William Walker given by S.M. Stirling to the main antagonist of the series was not casual either.

[Geekhis Khan]

Originally Posted by Stalker

Reading Turtledove's final book of mega-series "World War - Colonization" "Homeward Bound" I run into an interesting character, a Lizard-cop, inspector Garanpo trying to trace ginger-smuggling from Admiral Peary down to Home.
That's a very shrewd male playing noodle and his manner of speech, his habits looked very familiar to me and that it suddenly struck me - why, of course, that's Lieutenant Colombo, Peter Falk under Lizard's scales...
And Turtledove really makes a hint to that: G-C, alveolar R-palatal L, plosive devoiced P- plosive voiced B... Garanpo - Colombo...
Has that also occurred to anybody?

That was a rather obvious and purposeful shout-out. The turtledove wiki talks about him as a Columbo shout-out. One of many; TD & SMS both love shout-outs and historical irony.

[Stalker]

Originally Posted by Geekhis Khan

That was a rather obvious and purposeful shout-out. The turtledove wiki talks about him as a Columbo shout-out. One of many; TD & SMS both love shout-outs and historical irony.

Of course, it was but I didn'check it in his Wiki. Such analogies and allusions are very helpful for fiction becuase that effectof recognition does them even more in the way of attractiveness. The writers as the rule, understant that perfectly well.