Star Prince Charlie (New York, 1976) has arrived by post. Like The Makeshift Rocket, it refers to the royal house of Stuart. Like the Hoka series, it refers to the Interbeing League and its plenipotentiaries and to a place called Bagdadburgh. The cover, the blurb inside the cover, the Prologue and the back cover do not mention Hokas. The blurb does refer to the title character's imaginative tutor and a correspondent has informed me that that tutor will turn out to be a Hoka.
We have previously read about Hokan society but not about a sole individual in another context. Thus, we have here a perfect example of an independent story set against an established futuristic background.
The League guides, educates and develops primitive beings and the Prologue lists reasons why guided development has to be slow:
primitives must not acquire advanced weapons;
natives must not become dependent on an industry that it is beyond their means to sustain;
ancient institutions must not be overthrown too quickly;
every people has the right to choose its own destiny.
I suspect that our hero will be in danger of transgressing some of these principles.
1 comment:
Hi, Paul!
I hope you have fun reading STAR PRINCE CHARLIE, and I look forward to any comments you make about that book. To say nothing of what you might say about "The High Ones" once THE HORN OF TIME also arrives at your house.
I have two copies of STAR PRINCE CHARLIE, hardback and paperback I keep the latter because there's a textual flaw in the hardback and you would need to consult the soft cover version for the correct text. I would need to reread the hard cover to find the exact flaw, tho.
I certainly agree with the desirability of keeping advanced weapons (AND space ships out of the hands of the primitive societies the Cultural Development Service of the Interbeing League were trying to guide. Because some, perhaps most, barbarian societies would be warlike and aggressive, and all too likely to try their hand at interstellar piracy or conquest.
Apparently, in the Hoka stories, we only see the Interbeing League in its younger and hopeful days. We don't know how it would handle either barbarians who had burst into space with modern weapons and spaceships or hostile civilized powers.
But, that would have turned the Hoka series into SERIOUS science fiction, and not the kind of light hearted humor (leavened with some sober and serious thought) Anderson and Dickson wanted in these stories. We can turn to others of their works for sternly serious SF!
Sean
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