the early Psychotechnic History;
the Maurai History;
Twilight World;
Shield;
Vault Of Ages.
The inhabitants of SM Stirling's Draka timeline waged the Great War and the Eurasian War and wonder what the Final War will be like. They find out. Imagine what it would be like if something long imagined really did happen. Stirling describes not recovery from the Final War but the War itself, the real Ragnarok or Armageddon, lacking only James Blish's demons manifesting in Death Valley.
Nukes alone would destroy everything. The Draka deploy a bio-weapon while the Alliance attacks with a computer virus. But there are nuclear explosions and electromagnetic pulses as well:
"High-altitude detonations." (The Stone Dogs, p. 456)
"'London's gone.'" (p. 460)
"'Multiple detonation, Japan.'" (ibid.)
Eric von Shrakenberg knows that the Draka victory might mean a dead end for Earth but that the escaping Alliance starship "'...means an insurance policy fo' our species...'" (p. 471)
Its captain is a novelist called Anderson.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've read THE STONE DOGS at least twice, but that second reading was a long time ago. But I do have a few thoughts.
It's ironic, but Eric von Shrakenberg was pushed into unleashing the Domination's bioweapon by Yolande Ingolfsson herself. And the Final War might well have turned out differently if the Chairman of the Alliance had ordered an immediate attack on the Dominiation, instead of, I think, a 24 hours ultimatum. That merely gave the Domination's bioweapon the time needed for key Alliance personnel infected with it to go mad after it was "activated."
And, I'm chagrined at how I missed how the Captain of the "New America" was named ANDERSON, a physicist of DANISH descent born in Minnesota! All of which, except for being a space captain, applies to Poul Anderson. I'm chagrined at how I missed how the first paragraph of the second Epilogue was plainly a homage to Anderson.
Sean
Sean,
It seems that it was a very difficult lesson to learn how to fight the Draka.
Paul.
...and Captain Anderson was writing a novel.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Captain Anderson was writing a novel? Yet another Stirlingian allusion to Poul Anderson! Even the name of the Alliance's STL starship, the "New America" might be an allusion to Anderson. NEW AMERICA is the name of the book collecting some of Anderson's "History of Rustum" stories.
Reasonably decent people OFTEN find it very difficult to believe how evil, fanatical, or implacable some enemies might be. Simply recall the slow, fumbling, and hesitant reaction of so many to the National Socialists, Communists, or fanatical Muslim jihadists.
Or, to use an example from Anderson's works, there were many in the Empire who refused to believe how implacably hostile the Merseian Roidhunate was. That would explain the Chairman's fatal decision to give the Domination a 24 hours ultimatum.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another thought came to mind: on page 270 of my paperback copy of THE STONE DOGS we see Eric von Shakenberg saying that what Louise Gayner and her Militants wanted was "...what the militants have in mind is reorganizin' the human race on a hive-insect specialization model." And a bit later Eric's guest Harry Snappdove mused: "...intelligence doesn't necessarily imply a self-conscious individual mind, y'know. Let the Militants get in control for three, four generations, and it'd be a positive disadvantage, even for the Race. We'd end up as empty of selfhood as ants." All of that reminded me of what we see in Anderson's story "The High Ones."
Sean
Sean:
And (I apologize if you've already pointed this out elsewhere), "Harry Snappdove" is a very BLATANT reference to Stirling's fellow alternate-history writer, Harry Turtledove. "Snapp-", snapping-turtle, y'see....
Turtledove himself has used such jesting allusions. He did one fantasy series in a setting resembling the American Civil War with sorcery, and the generals all had names related to their real-world counterparts, sometimes by some ODD stretches. My favorite among those was General Bart ... counterpart to General Ulysses SIMPSON Grant.
Hi, David!
No need to apologize! Instead, I'm crestfallen yet again at how I missed a Stirlingian allusion to Harry Turtledove. Not only is Harry Snappdove's name a possible allusion to Turtledove, the description given of him strongly resembles how Turtledove looks. Page 268 of THE STONE DOGS describes how Snappdove appeared to Yolande Ingolfsson: "...an unfashionable man, only 50 millimeters taller than she, broad built and bear strong; you could see that he might turn pear-shaped in middle among any people but Draka. A hooked nose, balding brow, and a brush of dark-brown beard." One you pointed it out and payed attention, I immediately thought of Turtledove.
I've read many of Turtledove's books but not, alas, the series you mentioned about an alternate US Civil War with fantasy. And even I have heard of the Simpsons! (Smiles)
Sean
Post a Comment