In Satan's World, the threat to Technic civilization is external, not internal, although maybe the ease with which the Shenna are able to infiltrate that civilization highlights one of its weaknesses. Technic merchants sell arms to barbarians in "A Little Knowledge." In "Lodestar," conflicts within Technic civilization even cause conflict between van Rijn and Falkayn: a pivotal story. In Mirkheim, the Technic conflicts become a civil war when an apparently external threat is shown to be essentially internal. One of the two League cartels has backed and exploited what looks like the external threat of an alien imperialism.
The following stories show the longer term consequences: the colonization of Avalon; the collapse of the Solar Commonwealth; the founding and expansion of the Terran Empire; its war with the Domain of Ythri; the later history of the Empire and the even longer term consequences of its eventual Fall.
Today I might be mainly reading Alan Watts.
4 comments:
The Mirkheim thing always struck me as a bit implausible -- too conspiratorial. Politics just doesn't work that way.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think I understand your point. But, aren't some complex plots possible? Centuries later we see Merseia (and Aycharaych) hatching complicated conspiracies against the Empire in THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN, A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, and THE GAME OF EMPIRE, etc.
But, the problem with too clever by half schemes is that something goes wrong, derailing these complex plots.
Happy New Year! Sean
There was an essay by John W. Campbell published as an editorial in Analog some years after his death, in which he argued that someone could get away with murder by setting in motion hundreds of series of events that each had a roughly 1% chance of killing the intended victim.
Each one would be Rube Goldbergish or too clever by half, but put together might work & and the one that works would be looked at by itself afterward and people would say "no one would use that to deliberately kill someone, it has to be accident".
Aycharach's actions are a bit like that. Lots of plots that each have only a modest chance of success.
Kaor, Jim!
I think I understand Campbell's point--and what Aycharaych and the Merseians tried to do, but I still have my doubts. I recall Stirling repeatedly reminding us of how contingent and unpredictable human affairs are. Meaning something would be likely to disrupt the complex scheme of Campbell's hypothetical murderer.
Fortunately for the Empire these Merseian plots were derailed!
Happy New Year! Sean
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