I had forgotten about this. When the trader team are interned on Babur, Sheldon Wyler, a human being working for the Baburites, names his Merseian companion as Blyndwyr of the Vach Ruethen and explains:
"'A fair number of Merseians are enlisted in the navy... Mostly they belong to the aristocratic party at home and have no love for the League, considering how it shunted their kind aside and dealt instead with the Gethfennu group. You know, not many League people seem to understand what a cosmos of enemies it's made for itself over the years.'" (p. 96)
This speech by Wyler is significant in at least three ways:
it adds to the theme of problems for the League;
it makes Mirkheim a sequel also to "Day of Burning";
it is ironic because Wyler does not realize that he is addressing the very man - and the very team - that indeed shunted aside the Merseian aristocrats and dealt instead with their planet's crime syndicate because it was the only effective global organization.
Complicated history. Small universe.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A complicated, multilayered universe indeed! And what has been going on Merseia since "Day of Burning"? Were the Gethfennu now claiming they could no longer be considered criminals? That would make sense only if they STOPPED being criminals. I strongly suspect they remained gangsters and thus further embittered not only Merseian aristocrats but all law abiding Merseians.
Ad astra! Sean
The difference between a "gangster" and a "ruler" is basically prolonged success.
Note that the Gethfennu were analogous to the Yakuza in Japan -- both were underground, criminal imitations of the aristocratic power structures of their respective societies.
So the Gethfennu were a copy of the artistocratic clans that dominated the most important Merseian society.
At the end of James Blish's THE DAY AFTER JUDGMENT, Satan has to become God and realizes that he doesn't want to.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or as Mike Havel said in one of the earlier Emberverse books: "And the first king of his dynasty was a lucky soldier."
And we see the gangsters and bikers of the Portland Protective Association evolving or changing like that as time passed.
I agree, the Gethfennu copied, distortedly, the Merseian aristocrats of the Wilwidh Ocean culture.
Ad astra! Sean
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