Thursday 29 March 2018

Children Of Empire

In "The Warriors from Nowhere," Emperor Hans' granddaughter is kidnapped.

In A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Flandry's and Persis' son has contacted Flandry and the latter becomes engaged to the Gospodar of Denniza's neice.

In A Stone In Heaven, Max Abrams' daughter contacts Flandry and the second of Hans' surviving sons has succeeded as Emperor.

In The Game Of Empire, Flandry's daughter and Dragoika's son take actions that bring them to Flandry's attention.

Thus, a second generation is introduced in the concluding four installments of the Dominic Flandry series.

4 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

One thing to keep in mind in any long series is the succession of generations; it's an important part of human life.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul, and we also see mention of Crown Prince Karl, son of Emperor Gerhart. And Karl was said to like and admire Dominic Flandry in THE GAME OF EMPIRE.

Mr. Stirling, I agree. Good writers of long lasting series give us a sense of the passing of time and generations. My only qualifier would be that PA experimented in some of his stories with characters who either lived indefinitely or had unusually long lives. Such as the Elves of THE BROKEN SWORD, the quasi immortals of WORLD WITHOUT STARS, who lived indefinitely after a single treatment with an antithanatic. And FOR LOVE AND GLORY has characters who, by taking periodic life extending treatments, might live indefinitely. THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS shows us accidental "immortals" where that way by some of genetic fluke.

And you did the same with some of your stories, such as the Draka (and certain favored servants) of DRAKON living indefinitely via periodic life extending treatments. These characters will need to be given a sense of the passing of time, of shorter lived generation coming and going.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Both,
James Blish's CITIES IN FLIGHT works well as a future history until Vol III. Then the antiagathics keep a small group of individuals alive for centuries and the reader is surprised to be told how much time has elapsed between installments.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And it was the third volume of CITIES IN FLIGHT which got me bogged down. Perhaps for reasons like what you suggested.

Sean