In Anderson's, "The Alien Enemy":
the star Hr 6806 is called Cumae;
the colonized planet of Cumae is called Sibylla;
other colonized planets are called Zion, Atlas, Asgard and Lucifer.
In Anderson's "The Faun":
the colonized planet of Epsilon Eridani is called Arcadia.
There are several names in Anderson's "Time Lag," which we will reread shortly.
Tomorrow, day trip to London for UN Anti-Racism Day.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I was curious enough to look up "Cumae," wondering where Poul Anderson took or found that name. Cumae was the name of an ancient Greek colony on the mainland of Italy. And "Sibylla" was apparently taken from a shrine called the "Cave of the Sibyl." An interesting example of Anderson using obscure but genuine historical details.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
David Drake wrote one novella and one tetralogy of novels involving the Sibyl at Cumae. The novella, "To Bring the Light," is an hommage to L. Sprague de Camp's classic Lest Darkness Fall, featuring a 3rd-century Roman woman flung back a thousand years to meet Romulus and Remus ... and become the Sibyl. In the tetralogy, The Books of the Elements, one of the main characters periodically meets with and gets information from the Sibyl ... although she claims to be a figment of his imagination.
David,
So the novella and the tetralogy are set in different continuities?
Paul.
Kaor, DAVID!
Dang! Again, you show much I have NOT read in SF and F! At least I have read de Camp's LEST DARKNESS FALL and Ward Moore's "Bring the Jubilee."
And I have read a fair amount of Dave Drake's books, both solo and the collaborations. I esp. like THE GENERAL series, co-authored with S.M. Stirling.
Sean
Paul:
Yes, completely different. In fact, the tetralogy is set in a world that's clearly based on the Roman Empire during the reign of Tiberius, but with genuine magic, and one name altered: the city on the Seven Hills is not Rome, but Carcë, which Drake admits is a salute to Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros. His stated reason for the change is so he won't have to put up with people (people he's too polite to call idiots) writing him to complain, "Wait a minute, Rome never did __!" He points out, "This is a fantasy novel, not a historical novel with fantasy elements."
Even understanding why he did it, it can be somewhat jarring to read how, for instance, Marcus Atilius Regulus was a great hero of the Carcëan Republic in its war against Carthage.... All the place names except Carcë are the same.
The emperor's name is never specified, but Drake said the empire is meant to be "extremely similar in history and culture to Rome of A.D. 30." Tiberius ruled at that time. He was touchy and paranoid. So is the Emperor of Carcë. The main characters keep having to work around the fact that some of the things they're doing to defend the empire could easily be misinterpreted as treason ... and then the entire family will get crucified.
Kaor, DAVID!
I think I get what Dave Drake was trying to do. But, hmmm, the "Carcean Republic" or the "Carcean Empire" (sorry, I don't know to use umlauts) doesn't seem to be quite convincing!
At least Poul and Karen Anderson's four volume THE KING OF YS was a HISTORICAL novel WITH fantasy elements!
Sean
The "Books of the Elements" are extremely good, btw. Dave really -knows- Rome.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I could tell that simply from reading THE GENERAL series you co-authored with Mr. Drake. Esp. the echoes there taken from the Eastern Roman Empire. E.g., Governor Barholm Clerett was Justinian I; his wife Anne was the Empress Theodora; Raj Whitehall was Belisarius, etc.
I have read others of Mr. Drake's books as well, such as BIRDS OF PREY.
Sean
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