[Dragaera] Jo Walton reviews 'Agyar'

[Philip Hart]

On Thu, 5 Nov 2009, Maximilian Wilson wrote:

>> There?s also the thing where he mentions Byron saying something and you
>> assume he?s read it, but no. The length of Jack?s life and the nature of his
>> experience creeps up on you.
>
> Is she right about Byron? I thought Jack was barely a century old, but
> Byron died in 1824.

So I had < 150 years in my head, and was disinclined to find out, 
because the book, while great, is for me often a painful experience.
But ok, it is set in 1990/1991 (_Another 48 Hours_, from June 1990, 
is playing in a multiplex, maybe a bit later than seems likely).  And 
Jim, who is older than Agyar, had children before and after the 
Emancipation Proclamation, so that puts Jack at later than about 1820.
And he says he learned to type when he was young with an eye to a career 
in journalism, so since the typewriter was not available commercially 
before 1870 that puts him at later than 1850.  And he mentions being with 
Laura at the time of the Battle of Atbara in 1898 (I don't understand why 
he would recall the Mahdist war more than say the Spanish-American if at 
all), apparently early in their relationship.  So that sort of hangs 
together and excludes Byron.