Receding Beginnings

Bad title but good cover illustration. Not an Ythrian but a Diomedean.

Here, I listed three ways to start reading Poul Anderson's Technic History:

Trader To The Stars introduces interstellar trade;

The Earth Book Of Stormgate begins with interstellar exploration;

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, begins with interplanetary exploration.

(To this extent, these three volumes go backwards through the History.)

The opening page of Trader... is "Le Matelot," which does indeed beautifully introduce the Polesotechnic League period of the History. Let us leave that volume where it is for the time being.

The first story collected in the Earth Book is about the Grand Survey. However, the Introduction to this volume presupposes and refers to the events of Anderson's The People Of The Wind, set centuries after the Grand Survey. This need not concern us if we are reading the volumes of the History in chronological order of fictitious events although, if we are doing this, then the Earth Book does not after all serve to introduce the History. The Earth Book is itself a historical work compiled at a particular stage in the Technic History and collecting narratives from earlier periods.

The Saga, collecting everything in chronological order for the first time, begins with:

an Introduction by its Compiler, Hank Davis;
"The Saturn Game," the story about interplanetary exploration;
the Introduction to the Earth Book, here presented as an introduction just to the first story in the Earth Book;
that first story, "Wings of Victory," about the Grand Survey.

Thus, after Davis' non-fictional Introduction, we read, in this order, information about the periods of:

interplanetary exploration;
the compilation of the Earth Book;
interstellar exploration.

The first and third of these are "beginnings" whereas the second has now become a piece of futurity that will not make complete sense to us until we have read The People Of The Wind at the end of Volume III of the Saga. This is not a complaint. I appreciate the History's narrative complexity, comparable to that of real history. When we reread the seven-volume Saga, as it needs to be reread, we know where everything fits and do not object to reading Hloch's words centuries before his Avalonian society, including the Stormgate Choth, is due to exist.

Although Trader... was originally the opening volume of the Technic History, it contained hints of greater complexity. The second of its three stories was introduced by an extract from "Margin of Profit," which turns out to be an earlier Nicholas van Rijn story. Its third story, "The Master Key," refers to van Rijn as:

"...the single-handed conqueror of Borthu, Diomedes and t'Kela!"
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 273-327 AT p. 281.

These are three planets. Borthu and t'Kela have appeared earlier in Trader... but Diomedes is in The Man Who Counts which had been published in 1958 as War Of The Wing-Men so that was the earliest published Technic History volume.

Maybe Final Observations

(Zacatecas, Mexico.)

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy.

I said here that there were three potential sequels but have thought of more but they will not be discussed on the blog, at least not yet.

I both dislike and disapprove of at least one Black Chamber practice, torture. Dislike and disapproval are neither identical nor always conjoined. An expert witness in a court case, when asked to give an opinion on group sex, began by stating that he personally found the idea distasteful. The follow up question was, "So you disapprove of it?" to which he replied, "Not at all." I noticed this, first, because that is exactly what I would have said and, secondly, because I was concerned at the conflation of distaste and disapproval. But surely torture warrants both?

Back to Shadows Of Annihilation: does an important character act out of character at a crucial moment at the climax of the novel or is the ostensibly uncharacteristic behavior sufficiently accounted for by what has gone before? Read and judge. I think that everything holds together but that things are not always as they seem.

Some Observations Near The End Of A Novel

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy, SIXTEEN and EPILOGUE.

Sometimes, a villain is killed by his own weapon, e.g., Ian Fleming's Hugo Drax. Will that happen here? I don't know yet. (But the nature of the weapon makes this possible, even plausible.)

Some characters were introduced earlier because their contribution would be crucial later. Nothing was wasted in the leisurely build-up.

Ciara has a moment of realization. Suddenly there is a clear and present danger. Luz and co must enter a place from which they might not return. Horst, who had receded into the background, becomes once again a formidable opponent. His presence is suspected, then detected, then immediate. But I reveal nothing unexpected by saying that.

Reading a little further, we appreciate the return to a more leisurely pace in the long Epilogue which, of course, includes a menu and also has a surprise viewpoint character. In fact, this has made me check back as to who were the concluding viewpoint characters of Volumes I and II. It turns out that three major characters each get to conclude a Volume. (I notice povs.)

I have had to google a Latin phrase. And there is an apt comment on the nature of loyalty. I can say this:

the Trilogy concludes;
it is implied that there will be no immediate sequel;
however, the way is prepared for at least three very different potential sequels...

One Very Easy Quiz Question Followed By Speculations

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy, FIFTEEN.

Which "...Jewish physicist from Switzerland..." had "...daring new theories...," including "...that gravity was things like planets and stars making a downward dimple in space. Rather like a cannonball on a sheet of rubber, and everything rolling down the slope it made toward it." (p. 335)

And will his theories be applied in timeline (B) in the same way that they were in (A)? How many years or decades of (B) are we going to be shown?

We have seen great scientists in alternative timelines before, e.g.:

Instead of Einstein originating relativity theory and Planck originating quantum theory, they cooperated to originate rheatics. Moseley applied rheatics to degaussing the effects of cold iron, thus releasing the goetic forces from their electromagnetic inhibition.
-copied from here.

Sexual And Social Mores

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy, FIFTEEN.

"...being too chatty with a young white woman might well have gotten the man killed, back where he grew up... Many are the marvels, but none are more marvelous than man and his idiocies." (p. 328)

Nothing varies more than sexual mores. Walking through Market Square, Lancaster (see image and here), with my visiting mother and maiden aunt, I greeted a woman whom I knew, then saw that the aunt was smiling quizzically. She asked, "Did you speak to her?" I was not supposed to speak to a strange woman on the street! I did not need the imported judgmentalism. There were things that our parents were never told and our relationship with the generations after us is completely different. (Someone said that the only generation gap in history was between those born before or after the atom bomb. Knowing that our elders could destroy the world that they were preparing us for made a difference.)

A Few Details

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, FOURTEEN-FIFTEEN.

The shadows move closer.

Luz was taught philosophy by a Professor Ganz, a surname familiar to readers of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. See here.

Another real person is mentioned, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. When the timelines have diverged for a generation or two, they will no longer have any individuals in common. For example, the course of Alice's life in timeline (B) will differ from its course in timeline (A). Consequently, whether or when she has children will also differ. Therefore, the children, if any, will be genetically different and will also grow up differently.

Luz wishes an early, painful death on an enemy. I would wish only for his early death.

Luz and Ciara share a tarte Normande (see The Food Thread):

pastry crust;
slivered almonds;
egg custard;
sweetened cream;
creamed butter;
Calvados;
spices;
apple slices;
caramelized apricot glaze.

(A tired blogger takes refuge in easily accessible details.)

Trade Unions

If capitalism survives, then so will trade unions in some shape or form despite the battering that they have taken recently. Let us consult three of our favorite sf series.

Heinlein's Future History: The Strike Of '66.

Anderson's Technic History: Van Rijn must deal with the Federated Brotherhood of Spacefarers, later the United Technicians. See here.

Stirling's Black Chamber Trilogy: Luz reflects that it was dangerous for steelworkers to be union men:

"Because it could mean pitched battles with the Pinkertons that Carnegie and then U.S. Steel had used as strikebreakers and goons, or with the Pennsylvania Coal and Iron Police. Nowadays everyone in the mills belonged to the Party-aligned United Steelworkers of America, and things were settled by arbitration boards, but memories lingered and attitudes would for longer still."
-Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy, TWELVE, pp. 285-286.

That is the corporate state. Unions need to be independent of government and of all political parties. And I would avoid those initials!

Modernity

We can look forward for beginnings but also backward or even sideways with the benefit of alternative history fiction. In SM Stirling's Shadows Of Annihilation:

"The Army Air Corps base outside Jerez was a dose of undiluted twentieth-century modernity, like something out of the 1920s or 1930s rather than their own decade, blazing with electric lights through the dimness of a rainy afternoon." (TWELVE, p. 274)

This chapter is dated June 21, 1917 (B).

This post and the preceding one have looked at:

Heinlein's Future History;
Anderson's Psychotechnic History;
Anderson's Technic History;
Stirling's Black Chamber Trilogy.

These three authors' characters variously look forward to or begin to experience:

ubiquitous electric lighting;
solar and nuclear energy, moving roads and rocket travel;
an applied social science;
the springtime of Technic civilization...

And now for a comment from one of the Three Fates:

"Can't say I've ever been too fond of beginnings, myself. MESSY little things. Give me a good ending any time. You know where you ARE with an ending."
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (New York, 1996), Part One, p. 1.

And who should know better than her?

Heinlein, Anderson, Stirling and Gaiman: can it get any better? 

New Beginnings And A Spring

Back home briefly between lunch and an evening meeting. Again, just blogging off the top of my head rather than responding to a new text just yet.

Heinlein's Future History begins in 1951 with just one technological innovation which is suppressed at the end of the opening story! A false start: the future has not really begun yet. Next, new sources of energy and forms of transport are introduced. The narrative gradually moves away from "the present."

Anderson's Psychotechnic History begins in the aftermath of World War III which looks like the aftermath of World War II except that a new science of society is being applied...

There are three ways to begin reading Anderson's Technic History. (To any confused new readers: "Technic" is not a mere abbreviation of "Psychotechnic." These are two very different future history series.)

The three ways are:

Trader To The Stars, beginning with the "springtime" of Technic civilization and the Polesotechnic League already in existence (see here);

The Earth Book Of Stormgate, beginning at an earlier stage of interstellar travel with the Grand Survey;

The Technic Civilization Saga, beginning before interstellar travel with the exploration of the outer Solar System in the mid-twenty first century.

Thus, at last, the Saga begins at the very beginning although the Chaos intervenes between the late twentieth century and the period of the opening story, "The Saturn Game."

Onward and upward, we hope.

Implausible But Substantial

(Another quick post over an early breakfast before other activities.)

Although I have argued that the premises of Poul Anderson's Technic History are implausible, the series remains a substantial fictional history in terms of its character interactions over many generations:

there is a single story about Emil Dalmady and a sub-series about David Falkayn;

both are employed by Nicholas van Rijn, the central character of a longer sub-series;

Dalmady's daughter in her high old age writes about Falkayn's grandson, who is also van Rijn's great-great-grandson, in his youth;

Hloch, who informs us about Dalmady's daughter, collaborates with Arinnian, who marries a direct descendant of Falkayn;

much later, the major series character, Dominic Flandry, visits Dalmady's home planet, Altai, and Flandry's future wife, Miriam Abrams, visits Falkayn's home planet, Hermes, where a son of van Rijn had become Duke;

a later Duke of Hermes would like to be remembered as long as the universe lasts whereas Flandry's actions have consequences that last for millennia although his name is not remembered.

The Technic History comprises single stories, sub-series and multiple historical layers.

Nostalgia For A "Future"

Paradoxically, although Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization remains a work of futuristic sf and a future history series, it is not really about the future any more. It is something that we read a long time ago, that we feel nostalgic about (as we can for the yellow Gollancz covers) and that we can still reread and analyze with pleasure. However, it is not, if it ever was, serious futurological speculation. Anderson himself went on to project very different futures.

And what is probable in this century? I take seriously the warnings about an imminent ecological catastrophe but, if civilization somehow survives that, then what? I doubt that AI is as close as some people think. Colonization and exploitation of the Solar System should certainly be within our grasp as should continued long-distance exploration of the rest of the universe. Scientific knowledge has exploded and it would be a tragedy to throw it away. Social conflicts have to be overcome although they are currently intensifying. Are things getting worse before they get better or just getting worse?

Traders To The Stars?

(It is late and I am tired so I am reflecting on much-read works rather than continuing to read and post about the current new book. All in good time.)

(1) Will it be possible to cross interstellar distances quickly and easily despite the light-speed barrier and (2) (a) will the galaxy turn out to be full of terrestroid planets (b) inhabited by intelligent beings with whom human explorers and traders will be able to interact linguistically, economically and culturally as easily as Europeans with Asians or Americans with Japanese?

Doubt it. I think that we have one vast and alien universe out there.

I have divided and subdivided the question as above because the number of extrasolar planets detected recently suggests that, surprisingly, the answer to (2) (a) might be "Yes." Nevertheless, that is just one sub-question out of three.

Could it really be just a matter of time before humanity lives into the kind of period described at the beginning of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization?

"...no springtime is identical with the last. Technic civilization is not Classical or Western; and as it spreads ever more thinly across ever less imaginable reaches of space - as its outposts and its heartland learn, for good or ill, that which ever larger numbers of nonhuman peoples have to teach: it is changing in ways unpredictable."
-Poul Anderson, "- Le Matelot" IN Anderson, Trader To The Stars (St Albans, Herts, 1975), p. 7.

"...the Polesotechnic League became a supergovernment, sprawling from Canopus to Polaris, drawing its membership from a thousand species."
- "- Margin of Profit" IN op. cit., pp. 47-49 AT p. 48.

Much though I love this future history, and even regard it as by far the best of the sf future histories, I cannot believe in those "...ever larger numbers of nonhuman peoples..." or those "...thousand species." One first contact with members of a multi-species, interstellar civilization would be enough to prove me wrong.

First Impressions

The first Dominic Flandry story that I read was "The Game of Glory," in a British reprint Venture Science Fiction magazine with a plain yellow cover - no cover illustration. However, I was already familiar with Poul Anderson so I do not remember which of his works I had read first.

The first work by Robert Heinlein that I read was Starman Jones. However, I read it in a large hardback omnibus volume of juvenile novels by different authors and did not notice any of the authors' names. I was somewhere between seven and eleven.

The first Heinlein work that I knowingly read was Orphans Of The Sky and I was very impressed with its unusual environment. I fondly imagined that this guy, Heinlein, would have written very few works, all short, unusual and equally good.

I had yet to learn that:

Orphans Of The Sky was part of the Future History;

Anderson had modeled a future history, his first, on the Future History;

Anderson's first future history also included a generation ship story;

there was a Dominic Flandry series;

that series was one section of Anderson's second future history;

Trader To The Stars, which I read not too long afterwards, was another part of that second Andersonian future history.

For a review of Clifford Simak's generation ship story, see here.

Poets

This blog is an appreciation of prose fiction mainly by Poul Anderson although we also place him in his various literary contexts which include poems:

the Bible
the Eddas
the Sagas
medieval legends
Shakespeare
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Percy Shelley (quoted twice)
Rudyard Kipling
Wells
Heinlein
de Camp
various contemporaries and successors

Are poets inspired authorities? (See Poets And Prophets.) No, but they express insights. So what do Shakespeare and Kipling say about a hereafter?

Kipling:

They will come back - come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls.
He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls ?
-copied from here.

Shakespeare:

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
-copied from here.

Comments:

I agree with Shakespeare (and would also cite him as the greater poet!);
it will really make my day if I do wake up after death;
"He," personified nature, does not waste decayed vegetable matter but nor does He restore the individual leafs or trees;
the "soul" equivalent is language, tradition, literature, knowledge etc, which we celebrate here.

Poets And Prophets

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy.

Horst thinks:

"Things change so fast in our times! What did that Marx fellow say...all that was sacred is profaned, all that was solid melts into air? Perhaps he should have been a poet, not a failed prophet." (ELEVEN, p. 251)

Poets and prophets are related. Whereas the Hebrews had Moses and the prophets, the Greeks had Homer and the poets. Both Biblical and Classical literary sources were regarded as divinely inspired authorities on theology and morality.

Any writer addresses his public about life. If he is too close to his public, then he writes what they expect, producing trite, pro-status-quo cliches, whereas, if he gets too far away from or ahead of them, then he becomes a voice crying in the wilderness. I have read the suggestion that the perfect poem expresses an equilateral triangle with poet, public and life equidistant from each other. Thus, the poet neither panders nor preaches but provokes?

I agree that things change fast and that Marx expressed this poetically.

Other Reading And Local History

Last night, after blogging, other reading comprised Mark Millar's Swamp Thing which also involved parallel Earths.

Our local immersion in history seems appropriate while reading historical or alternative historical fiction. The monarch has been the Duke of Lancaster for over 750 years. The Castle gate man's salary is paid both by the Duchy and by Castlegate Security. (Scroll down.) (Addendum: However, the gate man misinformed us about the nature of the "Lancaster inheritance." See here.)

In the center of Lancaster, pedestrian passageways include an "Everard's Way" so I imagine someone entering the passage late at night and exiting it in an earlier century. (Poul Anderson fans and regular blog readers know that Manson Everard is a Time Patrol agent.)

Addendum: The "inheritance" means that the Duchy has existed for over 750 years, not that it has been attached to the Crown that long.

The Golden Road And The Bridge

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy.

In Chapter NINE, Flecker's "Golden Road to Samarkand" is referenced once again. (See here.)

In TEN, a familiar poem is quoted and I can answer its question:

"...how can man die better
"Than facing fearful odds..."?

He can die better of old age after a long, productive, peaceful life.

The Romans and Roosevelt wanted their citizens to believe that:

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

Wilfred Owen called this sentiment an "...old Lie..."

The Many (Fictional) Universes

My attention has been refocused on alternative histories and parallel universes by:

reading Shadows Of Annihilation by SM Stirling;

watching His Dark Materials, which I might reread;

reflecting on -

Poul Anderson's Old Phoenix stories,
Neil Gaiman's Worlds' End,
the film, Last Action Hero.

As we have said before, any particular narrative may:

be set entirely within a single alternative history;
involve some knowledge of parallel realities, e.g., SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers;
involve travel between the parallels;
incorporate characters and events as fictional in one universe but real in another, e.g., a Lensman visits the Old Phoenix;
feature only the particular authors' characters or refer also to those of others, e.g., that Lensman, Sherlock Holmes and Huckleberry Finn in the Old Phoenix or Death from The Seventh Seal in Last Action Hero.

Does a single megamultiverse incorporate every possibility, including even scenarios explicitly denying a multiplicity of realities?

There will be more posts on this issue as well as on Anderson's Rogue Sword and his The People Of The Wind.

Three Fictional Truths

The human mind creates and contemplates some paradoxical propositions.

"In 1984, the world was divided into three permanently warring super-states called Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia."

This statement is untrue - unless we are summarizing the plot and background of George Orwell's 1984, which was not so much a possible future as an oblique comment on the year in which it was written, 1948.

"Shakespeare's plays were true histories."

They were in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest which is a work not only of fiction but also of fantastic alternative history fiction.

"In 1917, Theodore Roosevelt was serving his second term as President of the United States and Mexico was a US Protectorate."

This statement has recently become true in the Black Chamber Trilogy, a work of realistic alternative history fiction by SM Stirling.

The possibilities receded to infinity. Anyone can imagine alternative histories but not everyone can set novels in them.

Restraint And Unrestraint

Let us revisit "restraint." (See Restrained Fantastic Fiction.)

Usually we want a fantasy or sf author's imagination to be unrestrained. His or her imagination should be disciplined to the extent that it conjures up only logical implications of a fictional premise but also unrestrained to the extent that it pursues those implications to their ultimate conclusions. A novel might begin with a single present day technological innovation and end in a technologically transformed future society.

Poul Anderson went all the way with:

increased intelligence in Brain Wave;
futureward time travel in "Flight to Forever";
immortality in The Boat Of A Million Years;
AI in Genesis.

However, sometimes restraint is the logical conclusion:

in Anderson's Psychotechnic History, immortality is a dead end because organisms can be kept alive indefinitely only by shielding them from all radiation deep underground;

in the same future history, the first robot is unemployed because all other machines can be automated, e.g., a self-driving car does not need a robot driver, a fully automatic factory needs no robot workers etc.

Thus, although, from the premise of automobiles, the real world has reached the conclusion of a society where automobiles are everywhere, the premise of robots need not entail a society where robots are everywhere. Isaac Asimov did both. In I, Robot, the Frankenstein Complex entails first that every robot is programmed with "Laws" against either harming or disobeying human beings and, secondly, that robots are used only off Earth in any case whereas, later in his future history, there is an extrasolar planet where even the poorest human being must have one robot servant provided by the otherwise individualistic community.

Pancakes And Cars

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, NINE.

The good food guide continues. I will let the attached image speak for itself. But would you eat sweet and meat courses together?

This novel covers the same period as Dornford Yates albeit in a different timeline. Thus, cars replaced horses. Therefore, in some cases, horse dealers became second hand car salesmen. Just over a hundred years ago...

Sf is about technological changes leading to social changes. In this volume, Stirling, through his characters, has already cited accurate predictions by HG Wells.

What will the world be like in 2117? We cannot know although there are plenty of speculative answers. We can also appreciate change by looking backward in historical fiction and in alternative history fiction.

Restrained Fantastic Fiction

Restraint is an admirable quality in writers of fantastic fiction. Let me present three examples.

(i) Poul Anderson's restrained treatment of the Knights Templar in "Death And The Knight": see Occult Orders and The Knights Templar.

(ii) Although the demons (are said to) win Armageddon at the end of James Blish's Black Easter, they do not rampage through the world in the sequel. In fact, the magicians must investigate what - or Who? - is restraining them. (The demonic fortress of Dis rises to the Earth's surface in Death Valley but stays there; the Strategic Air Command must attack it.)

(iii) In SM Stirling's Shadows Of Annihilation, the by now familiar protagonists unknowingly approach each other but there is no hurry about it. We expect a showdown but can be and are given many colorful details of this alternative historical world first.

Good Morning

Having risen and meditated early, I might have some time to post over breakfast before going out at the crack of dawn.

In SM Stirling's Shadows Of Annihilation, when it is published next March, look out for:

in Chapter SIX, a list-description of an indoor market;

near the end of Chapter SEVEN, a dramatic pathetic fallacy - a threat followed immediately by thunder and rain;

in Chapters SIX and EIGHT, much information about the practice of Catholicism in Mexico;

in Chapter EIGHT, another oblique alternative historical  comment on "our"/real history - Roosevelt had:

"...quashed the Prohibition movement for alcohol because he thought it was stupid or unworkable or both..." (p. 164) (Comment: both);

near the end of Chapter EIGHT, mythological references to Artemis, a dryad and Queen Maeve.

Sorry that I can't fit in more. This blog approves of rich texts.

Shadows Of Annihilation, Chapter Five, And Food

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, FIVE, Advance Reading Copy.

Although this chapter presents much of interest, the present post focuses on a single detail. Often, we vicariously enjoy meals eaten by fictional characters. See The Food Thread. Occasionally, when SM Stirling's characters are hungry, they fantasize about food. For us, the readers, the effect is the same. Whether the characters really eat or just imagine eating, we read an account of food. Both Horst and Rohm do this here, mixing German and English words like "'...Thuringer Rostbratwurst...'" and "'...a heap of fried potatoes.'" (p. 107) Preferring the potatoes, I found an image of them.

Usually, I laboriously list each dish referred to but would that count as a "spoiler" in this case?

Today we attended the annual Green Fair where the menu was Vegan so I was unable to eat cheese with my baked potato.

Addendum: Chapter SIX begins with a lovingly described breakfast. Shortly, we will depart to a party where I look forward to eating a lot.

Shadows Of Annihilation, Chapter Four

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, FOUR, Advance Reading Copy.

Look for:

a meal that belongs on our Food Thread;

a cleverly inverted reference to Ian Fleming's Secret Service;

a four-sided conversation complete with eye movements, facial expressions, body language and other non-verbal signals passing between some characters but missed by others;

technical information about guns;

literary references to Hesiod, Virgil and the Tain;

mythological references to Wotan and Nerthus that will be familiar to readers of Poul Anderson's works, including his Time Patrol series;

an appropriate acknowledgment of accurate anticipations in HG Wells' The Land Ironclads and The War In The Air.

One refrain of this blog is "Remember Wells." SM Stirling remembers. The War In The Air is the precursor of futuristic war fiction. If you read nothing else on time travel, read Wells' The Time Machine and Anderson's Time Patrol.

When Luz and Ciara hear that local insurgents have German weapons, we wonder whether they will detect or suspect the presence of their opposite number, Horst. He wants revenge on Luz. What will happen between them in this volume? I do not know yet and should not say, anyway.

"PNR"?

A Short Quiz

A very short quiz for when Shadows Of Annihilation is published:

Which story by Edgar Rice Burroughs is Luz reading in TWO?

Which DC Comics animal character has the same name as the animal in the ERB story? (Someone out there might be able to work backwards from a DC animal to a named animal in an ERB book to the title of that book.)

A question that might be answered now:
 
THREE informs us of the Old Shatterhand series by Karl May. Which major fictional villain, discussed on these blogs, adopts the alias, "Shatterhand"?

Some Preliminaries

SM Stirling, Shadows Of Annihilation, Advance Reading Copy.

Among his many acknowledgments, Stirling thanks:

Joe's Dining (see first image)
Ecco Express and Gelato

- for letting him sit interminably and write.

No environment is friendlier than a cafe that allows this. My equivalent is Leighton Moss (scroll down) Cafe here (and see second image).

The PROLOGUE includes a very well deserved acknowledgment to HG Wells who predicted events both in our timeline (A) and in the fictional timeline (B). B gets its MAD before we get ours.

Once again, characters in an alternative history comment obliquely on our history, this time by grimacing at the thought of Woodrow Wilson as President in 1917.

See:

Theater Of Spies: Prologue
Our Alternative History
Our Alternative Universe

In Chapter ONE, look for a multi-sensory description:

good view;
hot and dry;
drinking;
heavy scent;
clicking and buzzing -

- and a deft summary of the previous conflicts between heroine and villain. The adventure continues.

Another ARC

Like totally out of the blue and unexpectedly, I have just received an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of a novel (see image), apparently to be published in March 2020. Thank you, Mr Stirling and the two signators of the covering letter, Alexis Nixon and Stephanie Felty of Ace Books. I am grateful to be still on the list.

With apologies to any Anderson purists out there, this blog regards SM Stirling as a worthy colleague and successor of Poul Anderson and will therefore give due attention to this new book while avoiding spoilers, I hope. No doubt there will be some comparisons to be made with Anderson's works although not just that.

I am just about to walk to Morecambe to visit my fascist friend, Andrea, so reading will be delayed. Rogue Sword goes down the list of priorities but is still on there. We have all the time in the world.

The Mighty Sagittarius And The Gulf Of Centaurs

"Where the mighty Sagittarius flows into the Gulf of Centaurs, Avalon's second city - the only one besides Gray which rated the name - had risen as riverport, seaport, spaceport, industrial center, and mart. Thus Centauri was predominantly a human town, akin to many in the Empire, thronged, bustling, noisy, cheerfully corrupt, occasionally dangerous. When he went there, Arinnian most of the time had to be Christopher Holm, in behavior as well as name."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT VI, p. 499.

This is the opening paragraph of its chapter. For me, it is the moment when Anderson's Technic History comes most alive as a sequence of fictional places and periods. A major river on an extrasolar planet is named after a constellation. The Sagittarius and the Gulf of Centaurs are mentioned as if we knew them. Bustling cities are among Anderson's favorite environments. This city is outside the Terran Empire although akin to Imperial cities because it is mostly human. The adverb, "cheerfully," counterbalances and offsets the adjective, "corrupt."

The opening sentence lists three kinds of transport and two other fundamental human activities. Arinnian is a human being who prefers his Ythrian identity but must take care in a predominantly human town. The chapter proceeds to describe Livewell Street which I have discussed before and will again. We walk along the street beside the oily canal with Arinnian and Hrill, the latter a direct descendant of the Founder.

Falkayn founded Avalon and Flandry will defend the Empire but, for now, we are between the lives of both.

Colorful Evocative Titles

Redgauntlet by Walter Scott
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Greenmantle by John Buchan
The Golden Slave by Poul Anderson

What happened here was that I thought of three colorful titles, then wondered whether Poul Anderson could join the list, then realized that he could. The first three authors were all Scottish. Another candidate title is Rob Roy by Walter Scott because "Roy" means "Red." Rob Roy was a Scottish outlaw like Robin Hood.

These titles are noticeable and memorable even by anyone who has not read the novels.

Hugh Redgauntlet tries to lead a third Jacobite Rebellion.
The Black Arrow is an outlaw gang.
Greenmantle is a fictional Muslim prophet.
The "Golden Slave" is the historical prototype of Odin.

(I found several good images for Redgauntlet.)

The Issue Of Legitimacy

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VIII.

"'I think they lack leadership here, En Jaime, and a reason to fight, rather than true manhood. What is this Empire that anyone should die for it? Should even live for it? How can there be courage without devotion, or loyalty to masters who offer nothing but oppression?'" (p. 120)

This Empire has made itself illegitimate. See Sean's article on political legitimacy here.

When there was an Iron Curtain, people tried to cross it from East to West, not vice versa. That fact alone was a sufficient indictment of the Eastern regimes.

The ancient Chinese political principle was not the divine right of kings but the mandate of heaven.

In the UK this week, popular revulsion has driven a Prince from his royal position.

Addendum: Vox populi vox Dei.

Some More Terminology

Rogue Sword, CHAPTERs VII-VIII.

Djansha, uninformed about military matters:

"...did not know a mangonel from a supply train..." (VII, p. 115) (Scroll down.)

When she was young, her father greeted her wearing only a pourpoint. (p. 116)

Some Catalans hold two Genoese merchants to ransom for "...three thousand gold hyperpera..." (VIII, p. 118) Compare ducats and florins.

A type of boat is a "leny" with a lugsail. (p. 119) In one, Lucas sails "...up the whole Sea of Marmara..." (ibid.) and along the Bosporus to attack Pera, a district of Constantinople.

That brings me to the end of some hand written notes and I must now eat before going out. We are not yet half way through this fact-packed historical novel.

Self-Reference II

See Self-Reference.

I particularly like the passage in which a Poul Anderson character says that Anderson's Maurai stories "'...soon dropped into complete obscurity'" and the very similar passage in which M expresses governmental disdain for the series of popular books about James Bond.

Here is a third passage for this collection. Swamp Thing is a fantasy series. Its title character, a plant elemental, is the protector of the environment. Watching men destroy trees, he comments:

"All for what? More paper...on which to scribble...fantasies and political slogans...more quick profits...with which to invest...in further exploitations?"
-Rick Veitch, Swamp Thing: Regenesis (New York, 2004), p. 69.

That word, "fantasies," leaps off the page of a fantasy...

All three authors comment on their own works through the medium of a fictional character.

At The Fountain

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VII.

The sculpture in the basin of the fountain is of:

"...young Perseus unchaining Andromeda." (p. 111)

When Violante meets Lucas by the fountain, she covers her hair only with a mantilla. (p. 112) Apparently, this is not usually considered enough. We are back with the status of women.

Lucas jokes that he does not want to provoke the anger of Zeus. Medieval Christians referred both to a believed-in communion of saints and to a Classical literary pantheon.

Violante has heard that Provencals are shameless flatterers. Lucas, a Venetian, spins elaborate flatteries. Will he wind up with Violante or with Djansha?

The Status Of Women

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VII.

Djansha would be admirable and prestigious if she were:

Christian;
of good birth;
Catalonian-speaking.

Otherwise, she remains a slave whom other men might borrow so there is no point in dressing her well.

A priest who baptizes her will "...expect a substantial donation..." (p. 108) but Lucas has many other expenses and, if she relapses, she will be punished, even burned.

Thus, Christianity has become not a spiritual path but part of the bureaucracy of a repressive society.

Offerings

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VII.

Djansha throws fat into the lighted brazier as an offering "...to Tleps, the fire god." (p. 107) When, shortly afterwards, she adds that:

"'Shible shall have the worth of an ox...'" (ibid.) (see the above link and previous posts)

- Lucas warns her again that:

"'...heathen sacrifices are forbidden here...'" (p. 108)

She responds by proposing to offer to Keristi, instead.

How much better it is to live in a society where no one cares about Djansha's offerings to Tleps, to Shible or to anyone else and where, indeed, it would be illegal to interfere with these harmless practices which some people might even find interesting.

Someone was surprised at a reference to "the Queen" in a Buddhist ceremony. It was explained that this indeed meant not some mythological being or the mother of the Buddha but the Queen of England. The monarch personifies the state and we express gratitude that that state allows, even protects, our practice of Buddhism. At Mount Shasta, the equivalent reference is to the President. So Djansha would be much better placed here or in the US than in medieval Europe - and all liturgies can make some reference to the head of state.

The Nature Of Comets

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VII.

"En Jaime had even shown courteous interest for an hour or more while Lucas discoursed of stars and planetary motions and the nature of comets..." (p. 106)

But what was the medieval understanding of the nature of comets? The post, "James Blish: Doctor Mirabilis," (see here) begins by answering this question before going on to discuss other aspects of Blish's sole historical novel.

Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy presents the prominent comet before the Battle of Hastings and there are many other blog references to "comet."

New Characters From Old Legends

Imaginative writers sometimes transform already existing legendary or historical figures into entirely new dramatic or fictional characters as Shakespeare did with Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth.

Poul Anderson did this with the pagan prophetess, Veleda, in "Star of the Sea" and Poul and Karen Anderson also did it with King Gradlon in The King Of Ys. I find it instructive to compare the Wikipedia articles about these legendary protagonists with characters bearing their names and featuring in twentieth century works of fiction.

Later: First, we realize how much of a story was already there. Secondly, we appreciate the authors' abilities to create qualitatively new stories and, more importantly, characters from pre-existent materials.

Un-Man: Three Meanings

(i) The Un-Men are UN world government intelligence agents in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History. See here.

(ii) In CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy, Elwin Ransom calls Professor Weston's body the Un-man when it is entirely possessed and controlled by a demon which speaks and acts through it.

(iii) "Un-Men" are Frankenstein monsters constructed from body parts by the wizard Anton Arcane in Swamp Thing.

Thus, three different and distinct meanings.

Arms And Armor

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VI.

"...an Alan's spear glided off the poitrail of a Catalan horse..." (p. 102)

"...helmets above and greaves below..." (pp. 102-103)

"Lucas saw a pike jab from his left." (p. 103)

"...[Michael Paleologus] couched lance and charged the middle of his foes." (. 104)

When the Byzantines retreat, the Catalans sing, "'Te Deum laudamus.'" (p. 105)

- but they are unable to take the castle.

Gyptians And Gotham

See blog search results for Tinerants and Tinerans, two groups of itinerant characters in works respectively by SM Stirling and Poul Anderson. Philip Pullman's Gyptians are like a combination of Anderson's tinerans and his Riverfolk.

Magisterium police fly down to search a Gyptian riverboat for the fugitive, Lyra Belacqua, just as Imperial troops fly down to search a Riverfolk boat for the fugitive, Ivar Frederiksen. Pullman's TV serialization reminds us of Anderson's novel although we might have to reflect to recognize what the resemblance is. Last week, we noticed another resemblance between His Dark Materials and several other works by Anderson. See Our Alternative Universe.

After lunch today, Ketlan and I also watched the harrowing opening scenes of Joker. We appreciated the fact that, although we are familiar with Gotham City as a dramatic setting, this film showed us a completely different aspect of that fictional city. Similarly, Anderson's "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" shows us (happier) domestic life on the Earth of the Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League. I would like to read more about everyday life on the future Earth inhabited by characters like Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry.   

Hauberk, Buckler And Gonfanon

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VI.

Strolling in camp on the night before a battle, two knights wear:

"...hauberk (scroll down) and mail breeches; their esquires would put the plate on them at the last moment." (p. 95)

Going into battle, Lucas has hauberk, helmet, leather buckler (see also here) and saber. (p. 100)

The knights wear surcoats and many are in heaumes. (Scroll down.) A standard bearer raises a gonfanon. (Scroll down.) (p. 101)

Lucas participates in a historical battle. He cannot change either the course or the outcome of the battle but, of course, it provides an occasion for an Andersonian action sequence.

Generation Ships II

See Generation Ships.

But, for a more comprehensive list, see here.

However, neither Poul Anderson's Tau Zero not James Blish's Cities In Flight is a generation ship story. The first has a single generation with time dilation and the second has a single generation with antiagathics and FTL.

Rogue Sword, Chapter VI: Historical Details

Rogue Sword.

When Michael Paleologus leaves Adrianople to attack the Catalans based in Gallipoli, they cross the Thracian hills to meet him, believing "'...that God and the blessed monsenyer (?) St. Peter and St. Paul and St. George...'" (p. 91) will give them victory. The Byzantines camp near "...the town of Imeri and the castle of Apros." (p. 92)

Because Lucas belongs neither with the heavy cavalry nor with the jinetes, En Jaime places him with the Almugavares who sound like the Bacaudae, outlaws turned soldiers.

One of the Almugavares is confident that the Catalan's fight in God's cause because "'Priest says so.'" (p. 94) After further naive conversation, Lucas thinks:

"Would God I were that easily satisfied..." (ibid.)

Years ago, an acquaintance told me that he regarded religion as a bad thing and I envied him his simplicity. Was I cursed with the knowledge of good and evil?

There is always more but that is an appropriate place to close for the evening.

(Thought for the day: Catalan nobility treated women badly. Maybe royalty can still do so but cannot so easily get away with it?)

Ogier And All

Rogue Sword, CHAPTER VIII.

Violante, a woman attracted to Lucas, compares him to:

Lancelot
Amadis
Ogier
"'...Huon of Bordeaux, he who became a lord in France.'" (p. 126)

Ogier is Holger Danske (see image):

hero of Poul Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions;

minor character in Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest;

referenced in Anderson's The Devil's Game (see here) and in his "Time Heals" (see here).

Meet Ramon Muntaner

Rogue Sword.

He is unobtrusive but he comes to our attention if we reread this novel carefully enough.

In the introductory "AUTHOR'S NOTE," the author informs us that a member of the Grand Catalan Company, Ramon Muntaner, wrote a chronicle.

In CHAPTER VI, on pp. 91-92, the omniscient narrator quotes a long paragraph, almost a page of this text, from Muntaner's chronicle.

In CHAPTER VIII, Muntaner tells our hero, Lucas Greco:

"'A few more such exploits, Maestre, and we'll have no choice but to make you a knight...'" (p. 125)

In the same chapter, on p. 127, Muntaner, who is a guest a feast hosted by Lucas, admonishes a disorderly knight.

What a pity that Muntaner did not mention Lucas Greco in his chronicle.