Sunday 23 April 2023

After The Rebellion

After the Young Flandry/The Imperial Stars Trilogy:

the story of John Ridenour, whom Flandry had met on Starkad in Ensign Flandry, continues in "Outpost of Empire";

the aftermath of the McCormac Rebellion, which had occurred in The Rebel Worlds, is described in The Day Of Their Return;

the life and career of Dominic Flandry continue in most, although not all, of what is left of the Technic History. 

The Day Of Their Return begins with Job 4:12-16.

Its opening chapter, 1, less than a page in length, ends:

"Above them paled Dido, the morning star."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 74-240 AT 1, p. 76.

This tells us that is set on Aeneas.

 2 begins:

"East of Windhome..." (ibid.)

This tells us that 2 is also set on Aeneas. In fact, the whole novel is.

"...Kathryn McCormac, his father's sister..." (4, p. 104)

- tells us that our new viewpoint character, Ivar Frederiksen, is Kathryn's nephew. Although Kathryn's maiden name was mentioned in The Rebel Worlds - an ancestor had founded the research base, Port Frederiksen, on Dido - the change of surname makes it easy to forget these Aenean family relationships between books. Kathryn's brother and his family were not mentioned in The Rebel Worlds. The McCormacs have fled before the beginning of The Day Of Their Return. It is all one solid future history.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Considering how the gentry/aristocratic families of Aeneas intermarried among themselves* I can see why or how the Frederiksens became the new Firstmen of Ilion after the McCormacs fled. One or more women of the McCormacs married into the Frederiksens in past generations, which was enough to give them a claim to the Firstmanship.

Ad astra! Sean


*Comissioner Desai found the political complications of these familial interrelationships on Aeneas a huge nuisance!