Monday, 3 June 2013

Outposts Of Empire II

I have got used to thinking of Poul Anderson's "Outpost of Empire" and The Day Of Their Return as a short "Outposts of Empire" section of his History of Technic Civilization.

John Ridenour appears in the first Young Flandry novel, Ensign Flandry, and re-appears in "Outpost of Empire."

Lord Advisor Petroff and Lord Advisor Chardon appear in Ensign Flandry and are mentioned in The Day Of Their Return.

Aycharaych is mentioned in the second Young Flandry novel, A Circus Of Hells, and appears in The Day Of Their Return.

Chunderban Desai appears in The Day Of Their Return and re-appears in the first "Children of Empire" novel, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Flandry visited the planet Talwin in A Circus Of Hells and his further activities on that planet are mentioned in The Day Of Their Return;

Flandry defeated a rebellion in the Virgilian System in the third Young Flandry novel, The Rebel Worlds, Desai became High Commissioner of that System in The Day Of Their Return and these characters discuss their experiences there in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows;

The planet New Germania is mentioned in the second David Falkayn story, "A Sun Invisible." Ridenour travels on a ship from Germania in "Outpost of Empire." The new Emperor is from Germania in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Ensign Flandry begins:

"Evening on Terra -
"His Imperial Majesty, High Emperor Georgios Manuel Krishna Murasaki, of the Wang dynasty the fourth, Supreme Guardian of the Pax, Grand Director of the Stellar Council, Commander-in-Chief, Final Arbiter, acknowledged supreme on more worlds and honorary head of more organizations than any one man could remember, had a birthday." (Ensign Flandry, London, 1976, p. 7)

Chapter III, section 2, of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows begins:

"His Imperial Majesty, High Emperor Hans Friedrich Molitor, of his dynasty the first, Supreme Guardian of the Pax, Grand Director of the Stellar Council, Commander-in-chief, Final Arbiter, acknowledged supreme on more worlds and honorary head of more organizations than any one man could remember, sat by himself in a room at the top of a tower." (Sir Dominic Flandry, New York, 2012, pp. 377-378)

Although the two "Outposts of Empire" works do not have any single continuing central character, they are skilfully woven into the tapestry of the History by means of several overlapping characters and cross-references.

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I would have liked to have known more about Emperor Georgios. What few reference I've found about him range from sympathetic to favorable. In her essays Sandra Miesel thought he might be comparable to the Roman Empero Marcus Aurelius. Which means Georgios unworthy son Josip was comparable to Commodus, the equally disappointing son of Marcus.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Hi, Sean,
I am just about to expand this post slightly which I sometimes wind up doing.
Paul.