Viewpoint characters in the novel as a whole:
Maurai, Terai Lohannaso;
Domain, Talence Iern Ferlay;
Gaean, Vanna Uangovna;
Northwest Union, Ronica Birken.
These are the four pockets of civilization that vie for control according to the back cover blurb on my copy of Orion Shall Rise.
Iern is a hero, the Stormrider, with a price on his head after the Gaean takeover of the Domain.
Inn conversation teaches us the economic basis of religion:
"'It's getting harder and harder to deal with Gaeans unless you're a Gaean yourself, or respectful of the creed, anyhow; and a lot of those deals are fat, very fat." (p. 187)
(Neil Oliver is on TV talking about the political opportunism of Harald Bluetooth's conversion to Christianity.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
We do see mention of an India, presumably still ruled by Bhenegali Brahmards, fairly late in ORION SHALL RISE. And of how they intervened in the conflict between the Norrmen and the Maurai AGAINST the latter. The Brahmards had old grudges with the Maurai to settle.
Mixed or worse motives for converting to a religion? Nothing new there! I recall the story of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and his people converted to Christianity in MOTHER OF KINGS. And Anderson shows us, in the Palmyra chapter of THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS, how a Christian became a Muslim because it would free him of the disabilities imposed by Sharia law on dhimmis.
Ad astra! Sean
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