"...its membership and employees from perhaps a thousand species. It was a horizontal society, cutting across political and cultural boundaries."
-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 135-173 AT p. 146.
In "A Sun Invisible," the Jaleelan, Beljagor, is contemptuous towards the Hermetian human being, David Falkayn, on the ground that he, Beljagor, is a Master in the League whereas Falkayn is as yet a mere journeyman. This is good in a way. Contempt is not good, of course. However, it does show that there is no racial superiority or deference in the League. The fact that Falkayn is a human being cuts no ice with Beljagor. In that sense, they are equals - even though Beljagor contrives to find individual reasons to act superior.
A similar message is conveyed later in the Technic History when Kossara Vymezal, traveling on her native planet, Dennitza, receives a warm welcome from a group of fellow Dennitzans who are Merseian by species. Anderson created the Merseians to be stereotypical semi-reptilian green-skinned space opera villains in an early Dominic Flandry story but they become much more than that in a later Flandry novel.
2 comments:
Though the upper echelons of the Terran Empire seem to be overwhelmingly human, despite several entire species (the Cynthians, frex) having Imperial citizenship.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
But we do see mention of non-human officers and personnel in the armed forces. And of how some of the people working at Admiralty Center on Terra were not humans. There might have been a slight preference for promoting humans, but not necessarily to an excessive extent.
And I recall how Flandry, near the end of THE GAME OF EMPIRE, was willing to assist Targovi the Starkadian Tigery of Imhotep in his career in the Naval Intelligence Corps.
There might even have been non human members of the Policy Board, even if they were not mentioned.
Ad astra! Sean
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