You might think that the question about the Institute was answered decisively when that organization was outlawed after a revolution, then some exiled Psychotechnicians were prevented from making a violent comeback. However, it is not as simple as that. Psychotechnic techniques survived as was shown earlier in Virgin Planet. Further, Earth, if not its colonies, becomes "integrate" and the much later Galactic civilization reads like a triumph of psychotechnics.
But, meanwhile, we can forget all that as we wonder instead whether Bertram Davis will survive his misadventures on the "Virgin Planet."
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I still grumble and mumble my skepticism of that much later Galactic civilization even being properly part of the Psychotechnic series!
But, yes, VIRGIN PLANET can and should be read and enjoyed independently of the other Psychotechnic stories.
Ad astra! Sean
Poul once mentioned to me that an underlying running joke of VIRGIN PLANET is that Bertram gets dropped on a planet of women and never once gets laid.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That has been observed; I noted it in a discussion on the Bujold list years ago, although I don’t remember whether it was something I spotted for myself, or whether I had read it somewhere. (In an interview, Lois McMaster Bujold mentioned reading one too many really bad Amazon Planet stories, so she created Athos as a men-only planet. On the list, I replied to someone that there is a book, AMAZON PLANET, by Mack Reynolds, which seems to be ruled by women [things are not quite what they seem], but is not women-only; then there is Poul Anderson’s VIRGIN PLANET, which is not really bad, because it has a sense of irony: for example, the male protagonist is a playboy on a world of women who literally worship men, but, between one thing and another, he can never manage to get laid.)
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
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