(ii) Carter travels to Mars, Phobos and Jupiter and becomes Warlord of Mars. Flandry travels to many planets, including Jupiter, and meets the Duke of Mars.
(iii) Flandry becomes an informal advisor to an Emperor. Carter becomes Jeddak of Jeddaks (Emperor of Emperors).
(iv) Carter saves the lives of nearly everyone on Mars. Flandry saves the Terran Fleet, thus preventing the conquest of Earth.
(v) ERB's Martian Series
Vols I-V: John Carter and his son and daughter.
Vols VI-VIII: a second Earthman transported to Mars and two Martian warriors whose stories he transmits to Earth.
Vols IX-XI: a return to Carter as viewpoint character; his granddaughter; journeys to Phobos and Jupiter.
The Dominic Flandry Period
Young Flandry.
A former colleague and the heirs of a former antagonist.
Captain Flandry.
The older Flandry, his son and daughter.
Both series go somewhere and are part of something bigger.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
While I agree Dominic Flandry became an informal adviser to Emperors Hans and Gerhart, I wonder if he ever became ab OFFICIAL Imperial counselor. That is, did he ever become a member of the Policy Board? We do know Flandry rose to become at least a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Navy.
Sean
Sean,
Flandry is a Fleet Admiral in THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I admit to being a bit weak on ranking admirals. The lowest degree being a rear admiral, and I think the next higher rank is a vice admiral. So Flandry seemed to have risen to Fleet Admiral of the Navy.
Sean
Sean:
It's potentially tricky, since a future navy COULD use rank titles in ways contrary to ours, but in the USN at least there're TWO grades of rear admiral (one-star and two-star), next higher is (three-star) vice admiral, then admiral (four-star), and (five-star) fleet admiral is the highest. For formal purposes, the full title is "Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy." There hasn't been a fleet admiral serving in the USN since Chester Nimitz died in 1966.
Other (real-life) navies have ranks such as Grand Admiral or High Admiral. These are typically considered to be equivalent to a USN Fleet Admiral, but in a fictional table of organization, a navy might have grand admirals who outranked fleet admirals ... or *vice versa*.
Hans Molitor, as Terran Emperor, wore the uniform of a grand admiral, with his rank insignia a "nebula and three stars" (*A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows*). Vice Admiral Kheraskov's insignia was a nebula and ONE star (*The Rebel Worlds*), so presumably an admiral (without modifier) would have two stars. Where does FLEET admiral fit in this? I don't recall ever seeing the insignia mentioned. It MAY have been a slip on Anderson's part.
Kaor, DAVID!
I was VERY interested by your comments, coming as they did from a retired military man like you. Yes, I should have remembered the insignia of rank worn by Kheraskov and Emperor Hans. I suspect a Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy outranked a Fleet Admiral. So I'm inclined to think Flandry still outranked a vice admiral.
Interesting, what you said about the USN having TWO degrees of rear admiral, which I find rather surprising. Yes, I have heard of how other, real navies have ranks such as grand admiral or high admiral.
See how small, but interesting details fascinate SF fans like us! (Smiles)
Sean
Sean:
One other thing I should have added is that the titles of rank can CHANGE, so that a rank that used to be known by one term takes on a different title without changing its level of authority. For a time, the lower grade of USN rear admiral was instead called a commodore (this had earlier been a title of position rather than rank). In the end, the Navy decided that caused confusion with other uses of that word.
Kaor, DAVID!
Yes, I had known that before the US Civil War, "commodore" was the highest rank used in the USN. After that war, commodore fell out of use, for the reasons you cited (I have read "commodore" was sometimes revived, however).
Sean
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