Monday 13 November 2023

The Allied Planets

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Roan Tom, based on Kraken, forges interstellar alliances. Later, Kraken is one of the Allied Planets. So were Tom's alliances the beginning of the Allied Planets? Well, no:

"No one on Kraken had known that pines and gulls and rhizobacteria were altered immigrants, until Donli's crew arrived and identified them."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sharing of Flesh" IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 661-708 AT p. 666.

Donli was:

"...a man from Atheia, which was supposed to have retained or regained almost as many amenities as Old Earth knew in its glory..." (p. 665)

Despite this, he:

"...had accepted life in [Evalyth's] gaunt grim country." (ibid.)

- on Kraken.

"...the Atheian data banks were packed with information..." (p. 666)

So Atheia inducted Kraken into the Allied Planets.

Previously in the Technic History:

Maria Crowfeather was from Atheia;
Olaf Magnusson was from Kraken;
Persis d'Io settled on Sassania which was one of Roan Tom's allies.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I don't necessarily see any contradiction, not if we see Roan Tom's efforts as simply the beginnings of the beginnings of what later became the Allied Planets.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

From the name, Sassania was probably settled by Persian Zoroastrians.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I agree, and some of those Persians might have been Christians or converts to Christianity. You did mention how the Sassanid Empire had a large Christian minority.

Sassania was colonized, imo, by Iranians harking back to Persia's pre-Arab conquest past.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

From Jim Baerg:

"Iranians harking back to Persia's pre-Arab conquest past."

My understanding is that some of the Iranians who dislike the current government have that attitude.
I heard a podcast by a now atheist ex-Muslim who grew up in Iran who has reservations about that faction because many of them seem to have racist attitudes against Arabs.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Jim!

Dang, my first response disappeared. I replied that racism is a dead end and, in addition, is not the right way to resent the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia. I also stated that simply bringing genuine freedom of religion to Iran will be amply hard enough.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

From Sean:

Kaor, Jim!

I would not be surprised. There has been repeated attempted revolts against the Shia theocracy misruling Iran. But not that any of these malcontents have racist attitudes against Arabs, that is new to me.

Racism is a dead end. People who want to change the regime should do so for better, non racist reasons, like breaking the grip of Shia Islam on Iran. Simply trying to bring genuine freedom of religion to Iran is going to be amply hard enough!

Ad astra! Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Thanks for "resurrecting" my lost comment.

Ad astra! Sean