Dominic Flandry first appeared in "Tiger by the Tail" (January, 1951) and his continuing antagonists, the Merseians, first appeared in "Honorable Enemies" (May, 1951) although references to Merseians were written into a revised version of "Tiger by the Tail" some time before these stories were collected in
The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume V,
Captain Flandry:
Defender Of The Terran Empire (February, 2010).
When "Day of Burning" first appeared as "Supernova" in Analog, January 1967, it might have surprised some readers that Master Merchant David Falkayn stood before Morruchan Long Ax, the Hand of the Vach Dathyr, in Castle Afon. This is not Flandry but Falkayn on Merseia. However, by this time, two discrete futuristic sf series, one about the rising Polesotechnic League, the other about the declining Terran Empire, had fused into a single future history series about the rise and fall of Technic civilization. This new post-Western civilization has come into existence at the time of the second of the forty-three instalments in the series and ceases to exist between the thirty-ninth and fortieth instalments.
If we read the Technic History not in the magazines but only in the sequence of single-volume novels and collections, then Mirkheim (1977) informs us that many Merseians have joined the Baburite space navy because:
"'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.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 1-291 AT VI, p. 96.
That is Sheldon Wyler addressing David Falkayn.
"Day of Burning," collected in The Earth Book of Stormgate (1978), reveals that it was Falkayn himself that had led the League delegation which bypassed the aristocrats to deal with the Gethfennu, Merseian organised crime.
Hloch, introducing "Day of Burning" in the Earth Book, informs his readers that he can at least reveal:
"...the part that the Founder-to-be took...'"
-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION to "Day of Burning" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, March 2010), pp. 209-210 AT p. 209 -
- in the crucial events on Merseia. (The Founder-to-be is Falkayn.)
In The Technic Civilization Saga, "Day of Burning" and Mirkheim are in their proper chronological order, the former in Volume II and the latter in Volume III.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It would be piquant if non-humans dealt similarly with the American mafia or Japanese Yakuza! Or maybe not, for unlike the planet girdling Gethfennu of Merseia, there is no single, unified organized crime network on Earth. Fortunately!
Ad astra! Sean
I think I should read more about the "Opium Wars" between China & Britain. China objected to Britain importing opium to China. Presumably there was Chinese organized crime distributing the opium within China. This would also be a situation in which organized crime was working with a foreign government.
Kaor, Jim!
True, but it wasn't entirely one sided. The UK was frustrated with China's obstinate refusal to enter normal diplomatic and commercial relations. A wiser China would have realized decades earlier the prudence in unbending from its hauteur.
Yes, China had its own problems with organized crime. Some of the triads had their origins in anti-Ch'ing resistance movements after the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644. As centuries passed the triads became criminal rackets, trafficking in drugs (opium, heroin, fentanyl, etc.), or prostitution and sex slavery. Other gangs, like the tongs, had no pretense of having any political ideals.
I've also seen rumors the Maoist regime uses the triads as a source of muscle for intimidating, silencing, or eliminating (killing) critics of the regime, both in and out of China.
Ad astra! Sean
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