Arthur C. Clarke's 2001;
Frederik Pohl's Heechee series;
Poul Anderson's The Avatar;
S.M. Stirling's Lords of Creation series.
I have asked a question and presented four answers but have run out of steam for this evening. Thank you all for so many page views, over 400 yesterday. Good night.
Addendum: See Comment. Thank you, David.
2 comments:
Paul:
C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine series, which began in 1976. The qhal are implied to be the origin of at least some legends about elves. Problem is, their Gates (which they found from an earlier culture) allow time travel as well — time travel that eventually disrupted not just the course of history but the overstrained fabric of space-time. (The previous time, too.) This wrecked the qhalur interstellar civilization, leaving isolated remnants, mingled to a greater or lesser degree with their human slaves/playthings.
When human spacefarers found the Gates and realized how they worked, it was judged they were simply too dangerous to be left in existence. A team was assembled for a one-way mission: travel through the Gates, setting the system so all Gates on each world visited shut down permanently once the team passed through one to go to the next world. Time and alien dangers took their toll, and as the series begins, the only survivor of the team is third-generation Morgaine.
She tells Vanye, the viewpoint character she's taken into her service, that she expects she'll never know when she's destroyed the last Gate. She'll just pass through it ... and never come out anywhere. There's no awareness during travel through Gates, so that'll be oblivion.
Kaor, DAVID and Paul!
Alas, I never read Cherryh's MORGAINE series, so I am unable to comment on her use of Gates and advanced alien civilizations.
The example I thought of was Poul Anderson's THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN. That story shows us how the Chereionite master spy working for Merseia, Aycharaych, manipulated the millennialist longings of most people on the planet Aeneas to foment trouble for the Terran Empire. Aycharaych used his telepathic abilities and an advanced science focused on the mind to implant a false personality/memories on his dupe and pseudo prophet, Jaan. The idea being to use Aenean longings for somehow transcending their ordinary humanity to foment a holy war and jihad which would tear apart the Empire. Which would enable Merseia to devour the remnants piecemeal.
In this story we again see Poul Anderson's skepticism and distrust of notions advocating the "transformation" of mankind.
Sean
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