Earth Real;
Star Trek;
Poul Anderson's Technic History;
SM Stirling's Black Chamber History;
etc.
Conflicts continue. Antagonists switch:
the US allied with Russia against Germany, with West Germany against Russia, with Russia against terrorism;
Klingons against the Federation, then a Klingon in the Enterprise crew;
Terra against the Shenna, the Baburites, the Ythrians, then the Merseians with an Ythrian spying for Ythri and Terra;
after their Great War, will Stirling's Luz and Horst cooperate against a new enemy? (Unless there is a global social transformation, there will definitely be a new enemy.)
I practice British diplomacy with my terminology. If I had written not "global social transformation" but "world revolution," then the latter phrase would have connoted to many readers not transcendence of conflicts but violence and dictatorship. However, all such terms, even including "dictatorship," have been used in different - and loaded - senses.
Science fictional thought experiments include dystopias and utopias. We can test ideas without killing anyone. Stirling's Draka transformed/revolutionized/utopianized their ecology but first they enslaved everyone else. A graphic work - title and author's name not remembered - showed Britain remaining the single great power in a spacefaring future. Maybe this is a nationalist's idea of a utopia? In the very last panel, the sign on a door in a spaceship showed us the price that had been paid for continued British supremacy: "Whites Only."
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
We do get a hint of a possible enemy of the US in the Black Chamber timeline other than Germany: Japan. The Empire of the Rising Sun seems to have conquered Korea, at least the eastern half of China, Indo-China, and the Dutch East Indies. If Japan can coherently organize these very disparate territories, I can see challenging even the vastly enlarged US of Theodore Roosevelt. And both Germany and the US might find they have common interests when it comes to Japan.
I simply can't believe in "global social transformation," unless you are willing to use the DRASTIC means and methods of the Draka. And we might see something like the Angrezi Raj taking form in the India of the Black Chamber books, because that seems to be where the British Empire might relocate its centrum.
Sean
Sean,
The seeds of an interesting future history are present.
Paul.
Paul:
I believe the graphic novel you referred to is Ministry of Space, written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Chris Weston. I've seen it cited on the Atomic Rocket site. The Brits grabbed most or all of the German rocket scientists after WWII, and left the US and USSR in the dust. The Wikipedia article on MoS to which Atomic Rocket linked did mention the final-page scene of racially segregated quarters.
David,
That is it. Thanks. A similar graphic novel is a sequel to THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Britain rules because it monopolizes captured Martian tech, including legged vehicles.
Young women who answer ads to go and work as domestic servants in London disappear. Why? Because the government has secretly kept one Martian alive and what do Martians consume? The Brits launch an invasion fleet against Mars and the Martian says, "There are more frightening things than us on Mars."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Interesting? Just keep in mind what the Chinese curse says: "May you live in INTERESTING times! And perhaps Greater Nippon might ally with Greater Germany against the newly imperial US.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
As to the WAR OF THE WORLDS sequel, hmm. Martians may be obligate consumers of blood, but couldn’t it be animal blood? Since they didn’t evolve on Earth, with human beings, they could hardly be like certain microbes and a species of ticks, which are parasitical only on humans. Either they would be unable to eat any Earthly life, or they could presumably live off multiple species. As to more frightening things than the Martians on Mars, Wells at least credits them with a very old civilization that had long ago eliminated harmful bacteria on Mars, so one would think they would have eliminated Martian equivalents of tigers and grizzly bears. Or if there are rival intelligent species on Mars, at least as powerful as the Martians who invaded Earth, why wouldn’t these other Martians have invaded Earth instead? Oh, and if Martians could only consume human blood, why not get it from hired or volunteer donors, one pint every few months?
Nonetheless, I can imagine the graphic novel sequel being worth reading.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Nicholas,
The worst thought is that it might just come naturally to the British government to think of feeding the Martian large quantities of human blood.
Paul.
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