It only remains to imagine a multiversal council of the most advanced beings from multiple timelines, e.g.:
the benign "time wardens" who succeed the warring Wardens and Rangers;
the Danellians/Time Lords;
the Star Masters;
the Chereionites;
gods and saints from the goetic universe;
the Others who traverse cosmoses with T-machines;
the transtemporally communicating Starfarers (also here);
the Vro-Hi and their successors;
the power that appoints the landlord of the Old Phoenix;
the anakro-travelers;
the inorganic intelligences of two remote futures;
the downloaded and re-incarnated human beings of one of those futures (see here).
The sky is not the limit. It is the launching pad.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I question the inclusion of the Chereionites and of at least some of the AIs of the HARVEST OF STARS books and GENESIS in this list. The Chereionite Aycharaych, for example, often did and perpetrated many morally objectionable thins while serving Merseia. True, he was striving to protect of his extinct race from the rapacity of the Merseians, but that makes me think the Chereionites were no better than any other race. And the ends sought by the AIs of the HARVEST books and GENESIS were often contrary to the long term welfare of the human race, even tho the AIs themselves were usually benevolent.
A better example might be found in the genuinely likable, and even possibly superior non humans we see in "The Martyr." That story, along with several others like "Welcome," WORLD WITHOUT STARS, "Eutopia," etc., impressed me because of the unexpected, even shocking ending of the stories.
Sean
Ugh! I really need to reread a note before uploading it! I garbled the first paragraph. This is how I meant to write the third sentence of the first paragraph: "True, he was striving to protect THE HERITAGE of his extinct race..."
And "thins" in the second sentence of the first paragraph should be "things." Bother!
Sean
Sean,
Aycharaych was bad but I was speculating that the rest of his race had "gone beyond" as many thought. This might be regarded as a fiction within the fiction.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And that reminded me of how the Chereionites were a star faring race several million years before before Aycharaych's time. We see mention of ancient ruins on many planets in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, which Aycharaych claimed had been built by his people.
I have my doubts, however, that the Chereionites had "gone on" to an alternate plane of existence. At their last, climactic meeting on Chereion itself, Dominic Flandry told Aycharaych that he was, in fact, the very last of his race. Aycharaych's PAINED reaction to this certainly makes me doubt that race somehow still existed. But I don't think you disagree!
Sean
Sean,
Their extinction is more likely - but there can be a universe where it was different.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Interesting. I can imagine science fiction writers in a real world Technic Civilization/Terran Empire speculating that in an alternate universe to their own the Chereionites had a different fate.
Sean
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