"There is always war among Them"

Gratillonius gives Mithras a bull on Lir's cliff under Taranis' sky during a thunderstorm and laughs at the Ysan Gods. One of his followers knows that:

"'Other Gods are angry.'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut, Chapter VIII, section 3, p. 165.

-but another replies:

"'There is always war among Them.'" (ibid.)

"'...the common folk are with Grallon...is he not their wonderful King, on whose reign fortune has always smiled?'" (VII, section 4, p. 171)

For a politician, it is often enough to have the common people on his side, although not in the long run if his policies are economically or ecologically ruinous. Defiance of a literally existent Sea God is ecologically ruinous. James Blish's black magician says:

"'...the sciences don't accept that some of the forces of nature are Persons. Well, but some of them are. And without dealing with those Persons I shall never know any of the things I want to know.'"
-James Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), p. 365.

I find parallels between The King Of Ys and After Such Knowledge.

I wanted to find that statement by Theron Ware but had to reread a chunk of the book to find it but did so with pleasure.

Large Objects

Regular blog readers know my philosophy. Fully to appreciate Poul Anderson, we compare or contrast him with many diverse authors, including other cosmically-themed hard sf writers. Anderson, Larry Niven and Gregory Benford have all written major sf series and have interacted in different ways. For a comment by Gregory Benford on one of my posts about his Anderson-related short story, see here. For comments on Anderson's contributions to Niven's Man-Kzin Wars subseries, see here.

Benford's and Niven's Bowl Of Heaven (TOR, New York, 2013) is like getting Niven's Ringworld back. I mean an artifact bigger than planets. Ringworld initiated a tetralogy and a co-written trilogy which, like the Man-Kzin Wars, are subseries of Niven's Known Space future history. Bowl... launches a new series. The authors think big and their alien characters build big.

On the title page of Part II, the authors quote Lord Dunsany:

"Man is a small thing, and the night is large and full of wonder." (p. 79)

I think that I can improve that:

"Man is small; night is wide and wondrous."

(Scottish English gives us "Man is wee..." but that sounds twee.)

We can also compare all these series with Star Trek:

"They left a skeleton crew aboard SunSeeker, with [Captain] Redwing plainly sorry that proper ship command protocols demanded that he stay aboard." (p. 81)

Captain Kirk, take note.

Astronomical Terminology

"'The planet's practically at the Roche limit. It's due to start breaking up.'"
(Man-Kzin Wars IX, p. 38.)

"'The planet's self-gravity will hold it together as it fills its Roche lobe.'" (p. 50)

"'...turbulence within may well eject great gouts of material, forming a spiral that streams into the star...the planet will take a teardrop shape, filling its Roche lobe, and pouring its substance down that spiral until it becomes an accretion disk.'" (p. 50)

"[Two moons] were close enough that tidal flexion...kept them warm enough that life was perhaps, barely, germinating..." (p. 44)

"'Apparently chondritic...'" (p. 53)

"'The chondrules surrounded a mixture of ices...The agglomerate was metastable...volatilization...'" (p. 54)

Unusual Heavenly Bodies In The Man-Kzin Wars Series

Poul Anderson imagined unusual heavenly bodies and added three more in his Man-Kzin Wars trilogy. Each of these three works describes an expedition to an unusual astronomical object.

In "Iron," a rogue red dwarf star and its planetary system, almost as old as the universe, have gathered nebular and intergalactic matter that forms a single multiplex molecule on one planetary surface.

In "Inconstant Star," an artifact surrounding a radiating mini black is used as a weapon.

In "Pele," a star not yet fully formed has six eccentrically orbiting planets, including one inwardly spiraling super-Jovian, its atmosphere distended into a long ovoid, that will soon break up and collide with its primary.

Thus, endless cosmic imagination. Of course, man-kzin conflict happens at all three because that is the series we are in but Anderson's imagination transcends petty matters like interstellar empires!

Tying Up Loose Ends II

(Both James Blish and Poul Anderson have described important science fictional events occurring in different places on this stellar map.)

See here.

Chapter XXI (pp. 301-302) ties up loose end (ii) and Chapter XXII (pp. 303-310) ties up loose end (iii).

Rover crew member Carita Fenger is one formidable woman:

Jinxian, i.e., from the human colony planet, Jinx, in the Sirian System;
short and nearly as broad with massive limbs and other bodily features;
ebony skin not from African ancestry but from generations under Sirius;
hair normally sun-bleached white but now straw colored;
broad nose, big mouth and close brown eyes;
"attractive," not to me but apparently so because usually cheerful.

She has sex with two guys and tries to befriend the up-tight Markham not for sex although, when he asks if that is what she is suggesting, she is prepared to give it a go! (He is not.) Her physical and personal awesomeness are made clear on p. 211 of Man-Kzin Wars III. Why am I listing Carita's attributes now? Because she knows exactly how to resolve the issue of loose thread (ii): something is developing between the married Captain Saxtorph and the passenger, Tyra Nordbo. Carita lends Tyra her current boyfriend.

(iii) Saxtorph identifies and neutralizes a traitor.

Typing Up Loose Ends

Weoch-Captain and his crew are as good as dead on p. 290 of Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars III. However, Poul Anderson's "Inconstant Star" continues until p. 310 because three loose ends need to be tied up:

(i) future history continuity;
(ii) personal relationships between our hero, his wife and the new female character;
(iii) who was the kzinti's intelligence source on Wunderland?

We will take the first one first.

(i) A prequel must not contradict later continuity. In Niven's Known Space future history, neither the kzinti nor the Earthmen acquired a tnuctipun weapon enabling them to win a decisive victory in the Man-Kzin Wars. Yet representatives of both species have discovered such a weapon in "Inconstant Star." Captain Saxtorph (human) has given Weoch-Captain (kzin) and his crew a lethal dose of radiation so it looks as if Saxtoroh's crew have sole control of the weapon. But they have not. Weoch's last defiant act is to propel the weapon with himself on it into hyperspace. The Rover crew "...saw their prize disappear." (p. 294)

That concluding phrase of Chapter XIX represents a literary tradition that is Wellsian or older. Except when alternative histories are invoked, it is a literary convention that fictional events occurred in the world as it is known to us. Thus, a Tolstoyan character can contemplate assassination of Napoleon but decides against it - and, if he did attempt it, would not succeed. The Cavorite sphere disappears into space and the Selenites kill Cavor before he can transmit the formula back to Earth. The Time Traveler does not return from his second expedition. On a more trivial level, in the 1950's, a weekly comic strip had cavemen discovering that the Moon is made of cheese, pulling it down to Earth and eating it. I said that the following installment must explain why there is a Moon today. Someone said, "Don't be stupid. It's only fiction." But, sure enough, the next installment explained how the Moon had been replaced.

That disappearing tnuctipun weapon follows in the proud footsteps of the disappearing Time Machine and Cavorite sphere.

Some Parallels

"Delta v" is a concept relevant to subliminal space travel but it crops up several times in Poul Anderson's "Inconstant Star" and I now have a layman's understanding of its meaning. See Comments here.

Poul Anderson describes "...popping in and out of hyperspace..." as "...transition between relativistic and quantum modes..." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 265) but this makes Known Space hyperspace sound like Technic History hyperspace. The latter is original: not another space but a succession of instantaneous quantum jumps within relativistic space.

In Anderson's Technic History, a Merseian says that "'...the highest end...'" is:

"'...absolute freedom for our race, to make of the galaxy what they will.'" (Young Flandry, p. 27)

- and tells his latest grandcub:

"'You shall have stars for toys...'" (p. 28)

One of Larry Niven's kzinti, written by Anderson, bares fangs at the stars and tells them:

"...we shall do with you what we will." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 261)

Merseians and kzinti are comparable to SM Stirling's Draka who say, "Glory to the Race!" but do not mean by this the entire human race and in fact succeed in making themselves a distinct species.

Amidst Lightnings

The passage that I am about to quote displays two features that we have found more than once in works by Poul Anderson. Regular blog readers should recognize both.

"Agony: And I am helpless, helpless.
"Revelation: No!
"Through a time beyond time, Nordbo stood amidst lightnings. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse -"
-Poul Anderson, "Inconstant Star" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990), p. 251.

The most obvious feature is a Biblical reference. See here. Less obvious, but also far more frequent in Anderson's works, is a character who (i) has a problem, (ii) suddenly realizes the solution, (iii) stands thunderstruck or, in this case, "amidst lightnings," (iv) does not immediately divulge the solution - although, in this case, we need only turn the page.

Nordbo's problem is that, although the kzinti have lost their First War Against Men, he is the lone human being among a remnant kzinti crew bearing intelligence that might enable them to win the Second. When he realizes the solution, he thinks, "Revelation..." The solution is that he can kill this remnant with his concealed knife. And, appropriately, he remembers a passage from the Book of Revelation about a remnant being killed with a sword. Thus, the Biblical reference is fully integrated with the Andersonian moment of realization. That is neat, even for Anderson.

Limits On Interstellar Communication

"The 'instantaneous' pulses emitted by a ship in hyperdrive are detectable at an extreme range of about a light-year. They can be modulated to carry information. Unfortunately, within a few million kilometers quantum effects degrade the signal beyond recovery; even the simplest binary code becomes unintelligible."
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 132.

However, the interstellar civilization in Anderson's For Love And Glory has an instantaneous hyperbeam. I remember that there was some limitation on the use of hyperbeam but not what it was.

In the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space History:

"'Someday they'll miniaturize hyperwave equipment to the point where it'll fit into a spaceship.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Inconstant Star" IN Niven, Ed. Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990), p. 211.

And, later in that history, Beowulf Shaeffer, exploring the galactic center alone in a spaceship, speaks to his puppeteer employer instantaneously by hyperphone. (Too easy.)

Anderson's Starfarers features an instantaneous and transtemporal communicator and Ursula Le Guin's future history has the instantaneous ansible. However, the true master of interstellar communication is James Blish:

his ultraphone is FTL but not instantaneous;

his CirCon radio and Dirac transmitter are instantaneous;

in one application of the Dirac transmitter, it receives messages from the past and future as well as from the present;

his Heart Stars empire and Angels also have instantaneous interstellar communication.

This is the kind of systematic treatment of a theme that we often find in Anderson's works.

Windjammers

"'Any [kzinti Swift Hunters] that remain in service will certainly be phased out as hyperdrive comes in, because it makes them as obsolete as windjammers.'" (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 220)

The change from slower-than-light to faster-than-light in space must be like the change from sail to steam at sea. Future histories feature this change from STL to FTL. Poul Anderson's Technic History began with FTL interstellar exploration but Anderson later added an earlier story of interplanetary exploration by light sail ships. In his earlier Psychotechnic History, the STL period involves interplanetary travel and an interstellar generation ship. Heinlein's Future history had introduced the generation ship idea and showed the start of FTL travel.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, the transition from STL to FTL is an important part of the history. In Poul Anderson's Known Space/Man-Kzin Wars story, "Inconstant Star," an interstellar expedition departed from Alpha Centauri thirty years ago and never returned. It would have taken ten years to cross five light years and the crew, kzinti with one man, Peter Nordbo, would have been in stasis. Now an FTL ship with Peter's daughter, Tyra, in the crew will investigate. For Tyra, those thirty years are "...the dark backward and abysm of time..." (see here) but the FTL ship will cross five light years in almost no time.

"'...what are we trying on this voyage but to probe the past and learn what happened long ago?'" (p. 222)

Technical Terminology

Hard sf writers use technical terminology which many of us skip past, e.g.:

"'Total delta v of about two and a half c, Newtonian regime. Customarily, during the war, they'd boost to one-half c...they'd strike and return with the extra half light-speed available for high-powered maneuvers in between.'"
(Man-Kzin Wars III, pp. 220-221)

How much does the layman understand?

v is velocity;
c is light speed;
v for material bodies has to be lower than c in relativistic space;
however, higher values of c can exist in mathematics, e.g., e = mc2;
so, if delta v can be two and a half c, then what is delta v?;
we can google but cannot understand the Wiki article which, at a superficial glance, does not seem to explain delta v's higher than c.

I am not about to pursue this issue further. However, Anderson fans with scientific training might be able to help.

An Interesting Variation

It seems to be second nature to Poul Anderson to use the Pathetic Fallacy. This would mean, e.g., that, when Tyra Nordbo tells Robert Saxtorph that her father disappeared on an interstellar expedition thirty years before, a cold wind suddenly blows shrilly outside.

Instead, something else appropriate happens. By coincidence, the musician in Harald's Terran Bar starts to play an army mourning song:

"I had a comrade." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 190)

The hair on Saxtorph's arms stands up. We know that such coincidences happen. But the point here is that the author knows exactly how to affect both his character and his readers. An sf fan reads on to find out what happened to Peter Nordbo but he has been affected by the coincidence although he probably does not pause to analyze it. Hard sf and literary criticism are usually worlds apart.

Overlapping Trilogies III

See here.

Ulf Markham is still alive in Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's last Man-Kzin Wars story and is killed in Poul Anderson's first Man-Kzin Wars story. Therefore, all the Pournelle-Stirling stories are set before all the Anderson stories. Simple.

In "Warriors," Larry Niven introduced the kzinti, thus creating a Man-Kzin Wars period in his Known Space future history which also features several human colony planets including Wunderland in the Alpha Centauri system.

In "The Children's Hour," Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling introduced Harald's Terran Bar in Munchen on Wunderland during the kzinti occupation.

In "Iron," Poul Anderson introduced Robert and Dorcas Saxtorph who fly from Sol to Alpha Centauri to negotiate with Commissioner Markham of the Interworld Commission after the kzinti occupation.

In "Inconstant Star," Anderson introduces Tyra Nordbo who meets with Robert Saxtorph in Harald's Terran Bar.

"The Children's Hour" and "The Asteroid Queen" by Pournelle and Stirling show us Markham before he meets Saxtorph. Their "In The Hall of the Mountain King" shows us Tyra before she meets Saxtorph.

And I think I have got that right.

"'...[the kzinti] did invent the gravity polarizer.'" (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 80)

This was said before it was learned that the kzinti got all their space technology from another race. Many, though not all, of the apparent contradictions in a series can be ironed out by reflecting that most statements are made from particular points of view. In Anderson's Technic History, are the Merseians mammals? See here.

When Saxtorph visits Harald's Terran Bar, it no longer displays a "humans only" sign. Saxtorph reflects:

"Mustn't offend potential customers or, God forbid, local idealists." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 175)

Those who object to a "humans only" sign are to be disparaged as "idealists"? I would experience a certain amount of social friction if I were to meet some of Anderson's characters.

There will be more but not tonight.

Hunters And Thinkers (In The Dark)

"Darkling in this light..." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 158)

"...the woods loomed darkling..." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 169)

It just means "dark" or "in the dark" and is definitely a Wellsian touch.

On Earth, some species hunt - stalk, pounce, kill and eat; one species thinks and reflects. Thus, we distinguish between hunters and thinkers. Poul Anderson's winged Ythrians and Larry Niven's feline kzinti do both.

"A hunter's wind blew...The wish that it roused, to be yonder, to stalk and pounce and slay and devour, grew in Weoch-Captain until he trembled."
-Poul Anderson, "Inconstant Star" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990), pp. 167-310 AT p. 169.

His fur stands up. His claws slide out. His fingers bend. But he walks steadily to meet the kzinti High Admiral. As his partial name and rank indicate, Weoch-Captain is a rational animal able, usually, to control his instincts. Those instincts, when unrestrained, will make him run through the forest and attack his prey with claws and fangs like a tiger. Such a combination of hunter and thinker is truly alien.

Psychological Differences

"It hurt [the kzinti] less, losing friends, provided the friends died bravely; and few of them had mastered the art of putting oneself in the head of an enemy." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 172)

These are two differences between human and kzinti psychology. The belief that a brave death is a good death is common, in Anderson's works, to Vikings and Ythrians and, in ERB's works, to green and red Martians.

"Kine die, kinfolk die.
"This I know that does not die:
"How dead men's deeds are deemed."

The inability to understand an enemy's viewpoint is a definite failing on the part of the kzinti. I remember a trade union branch secretary telling me that we had to see an issue from management's point of view. Did they think that the work force would resist if I was dismissed? As we saw when discussing Poul Anderson's Technic History, Terran Intelligence had to assess the real intentions of the Merseians, not engage in wishful thinking about their High Command including pacifists!

For other fictional examples of human superiority, see here.

Vocabulary And Violence

"She...deployed her diriscope..." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 154)

I could not find "diriscope" by googling.

"...the fulvous crescent." (p. 163)

This is a color.

"...in the course of gigayears..." (ibid.)

Of course a gigayear is a long time but how long?

"...they'd banked gametes..." (p. 166)

Again, we know the general meaning but I did not know most of those details in the Wiki article.

"...buckminsterfullerene." (p. 168)

"'...a small astrobleme...'" (ibid.)

"...the metal-poor rock is friable..." (ibid.)

"Sixty carbons around one lanthanum..." (ibid.)

Meanwhile, the violence is excellent. When kzinti land to take prisoners, their boat is toppled by explosives and each kzin is shot. Next, Dorcas hijacks the tug, empties it of its contents, then uses it to haul those former contents onto a collision course with the kzinti warship. Last, the tug itself is launched at the kzinti base. Anderson's characters get the job done with minimum effort.

Economical Writing

A sentence needs a subject and a predicate which are usually a noun or pronoun and a verb. Poul Anderson's descriptive passages are usually economical, e.g.:

"Wind whittered." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 101)

Elsewhere, wind wails, whines, wakes and wuthers. (See here.)

"Rain roared." (Here.)

Short sentences, maybe too short for some of us to think of, but they serve their purpose and therefore are right in their contexts. One rule of writing is never to write a longer sentence, paragraph, text or series if a shorter one will suffice. Anderson's novels are compact, usually quite short. When they are longer, it is because they have more content, not just more words.

Googling Words And Phrases

"'...a Pournelle rapid-fire automatic...'" (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 99)

I googled this phrase (see link) and found this phrase. I think this means that Poul Anderson has imagined a rifle named after Jerry Pournelle rather than there being a rifle named after Pournelle. Either way, a nice touch.

"...the glacier had gouged a deep, almost sheer-walled coulee..." (p. 100)

"The bottom was talus..." (ibid.)

"...wave patterns spreading from countless centers to form an ever-changing moire." (p. 109)

Sometimes a word is familiar but not its precise meaning. Sometimes even the word is unfamiliar. How can a writer wanting to imitate Poul Anderson acquire such a large vocabulary?

"Stars thronged..."

"Stars thronged, the Milky Way torrented..." (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 74)

(My laptop does not recognize the verb "torrented" but readers have no problem with it.)

Poul Anderson found many ways to describe the galaxy as seen from space. Two kinds of writers could profitably imitate Anderson. An established hard sf author would be able to write a perfect pastiche and a new writer would be able to practice many effective techniques while finding his own voice. (Aristotle wrote Platonic dialogues, which have not survived, before developing his distinctive philosophy.)

Techniques
(i) New combinations of words to describe stars and galaxies.
(ii) The Pathetic Fallacy, understated but also dramatic.
(iii) Always appeal to at least three senses in descriptive passages.
(iv) Write about competent problem-solvers who suddenly realize the solution but do not divulge it to the reader until it works.
(v) Use scientific knowledge to describe each new planetary environment in detail - What color are the plants? Which human dietary requirements do they lack? What is the local equivalent of grass?
(vi) Describe seasons and the weather.
(vii) Understand both sides in any conflict.
(viii) Address basic issues of human freedom and social organization even in action-adventure fiction.
(ix) In successive works, address each concept from different angles.
(x) Either avoid cliches or make them work for you.

Mars

Science fiction writers, including Poul Anderson, have written a lot about Mars and Martians. We recently referred to Mars here and here. Blog readers might notice that I am unfamiliar with some more recent versions, e.g., Moving Mars, the Mars Trilogy and The Martian. Comments and comparisons would be welcome.

Ray Bradbury's Mars stories divide into:

those included in The Martian Chronicles;
those not included;
one that has been in some editions but not in others (see Comments here).

However, it seems that all have now been gathered together. See here.

Science fiction is collaborative. It makes sense to compare Anderson's own versions of Mars and Martians, then to extend the discussion to cover all Martian fiction which is an extremely large subject.

For James Blish's Mars, see here.
For ERB's, see here.