Tuesday 18 November 2014

Introductory Details

What a slow, steady build-up of rich background details in a future history! In Volume I of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis -

on p. 30: There is a Jerusalem Catholic Church, which will not be mentioned again until the last installment in Vol III.

p. 81: Captain Gray commands a ship of the Grand Survey;

p. 83: There are trade-route cultures on the planet Cynthia.

p. 86: Human colonists farm on Hermes.

p. 93: On Woden, intelligent beings are quadrupeds.

p. 100: Communication is established with Ythrians.

p. 109: There is a University of Nova Roma on Aeneas.

p. 115: Ythrians and human beings explore a planet provisionally named after Gray.

p. 138: Captain Torres is a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers; Nicholas van Rijn runs the Solar Spice & Liquors Company (SSL).

p. 177: James Ching has a friend called Adzel; the Brotherhood limits applications to the Academy.

p. 181: Adzel is from Woden.

p. 183: There are treetop highways on Cynthia; the inhabitants of Gorzun are four-armed.

p. 184: Inhabitants of Alfzar are blue; his Brotherhood badge identifies a spacehand.

p. 204: David Falkayn is from Hermes.

p. 276: Falkayn has become a factor for SSL.

p. 348: Lady Sandra Tamarin is from Hermes.

p. 523: SSL sells Suleimanite bluejack to Babur.

p. 542: The SSL factor on Suleiman is from Altai; a Cynthian spaceship regularly calls at Suleiman.

p. 557: Captain Bahadur Torrance is a Lodgemaster in the Brotherhood.

In subsequent volumes:

Gorzuni will enslave Terrestrials and work as mercenaries;
van Rijn will employ Falkayn, Adzel and a Cynthian as a trader team;
government legislation will give trade unions control of pension funds;
Lady Sandra will bear van Rijn's son and become Grand Duchess of Hermes;
Babur will invade Hermes;
Falkayn will lead joint human-Ythrian colonization of Gray, renamed Avalon;
the main city on Avalon will be called "Gray;"
Alfzar will be neutral between Terra and Merseia and a Covenant will be signed there;
Dominic Flandry will visit Altai;
Flandry will defeat a revolution centered on Aeneas;
a Wodenite will be ordained in the Jerusalem Catholic Church -

- and, of course, a great deal more than this will happen as well.

It was the very early references to Cynthia, Hermes, Woden and Aeneas that I found most impressive. The complexities of Technic civilization start to come into focus from the very beginning of the series.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Goral I will enslave Terrans, but will earlier (Satan's World) and later (The People of the Wind) work as mercenaries.

Best Regards,
Nicholas Rosen

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Nicholas!

You reminded me of how men like Admiral Cajal, Leon Ammon, and Aaron Snelund all employed Gorzuni mercenaries as bodyguards. Their strength, courage, utter fearlessness, and absolute loyalty made them prized as soldiers and mercenaries.

The Gorzuni reminds me of human mercenaries of similar qualities such as the French Foreign Legion and the Papal Swiss Guards.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Nicholas,
Right. Thanks. I missed the Gorzuni working as mercs before the Troubles.
Paul.