Hard SF And English Literature

"Prominences were tendrils, the corona a ghost-shimmer." (Man-Kzin Wars IX, p. 73)

"...the best that the boat's sensors could do at this remove, lacking interferometry..." (p. 73)

"...clear of the peristellar zone." (p. 73)

"'...doppler shows she isn't boosting...'" (p. 73)

"...the sundiver's periapsis..." (p. 73)

"The thermostatics weren't failing..." (p. 79)

"'...to split molecules or radicals into  atoms - ionized atoms -'" (p. 81)

"The molecules flowed to make a dermis..." (p. 82)

I do know the meanings of some of these words but maybe other readers don't? Certainly there is much that non-technical readers do not understand.

A teacher at the kzinti academy echoes Shakespeare:

"'What they call conscience makes cowards of them all.'" (p. 87)

More From "Pele"

A kzin says, "'Glory to the race!'" (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 61)

Sounds familiar.

"Henrietta departed in the prograde direction...
"Caroline...was going retrograde..." (p. 64)

"...a hurtling hyperbolic trajectory." (p. 64)

"...monstrous plasmas..." (p. 66)

"...magnetic lines twisted around each other..." (p. 66)

"...main-sequence evolution..." (p. 66)

The explorers realize that a new planetary system must contain many metastable agglomerates easily volatilized by "'...solar input, impact energy, perhaps cumulative cosmic ray effects...'" (p. 54), thus all disrupted "'...long before intelligence evolves...'" (p. 54) They are surprised when an asteroid explodes in front of them but quickly deduce the cause. The captain wisely decides not to risk any more live crews in such unpredictable conditions.

Tyra starts a relationship with a guy who sets the readers teeth on edge - a bit like Wanda Tamberly's Time Patrol colleague in Beringia.

This post is occasioned by insomnia. It might be the last for a while.

Astronomical Terminology

"'The planet's practically at the Roche limit. It's due to start breaking up.'"
(Man-Kzin Wars IX, p. 38.)

"'The planet's self-gravity will hold it together as it fills its Roche lobe.'" (p. 50)

"'...turbulence within may well eject great gouts of material, forming a spiral that streams into the star...the planet will take a teardrop shape, filling its Roche lobe, and pouring its substance down that spiral until it becomes an accretion disk.'" (p. 50)

"[Two moons] were close enough that tidal flexion...kept them warm enough that life was perhaps, barely, germinating..." (p. 44)

"'Apparently chondritic...'" (p. 53)

"'The chondrules surrounded a mixture of ices...The agglomerate was metastable...volatilization...'" (p. 54)

Kumukahi

Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars IX (New York, 2002), pp. 3-95.

(Not a novel by my 100+ pages rule of thumb, especially since there are blank spaces at the ends of chapters.)

Kumukahi:

the inmost planet of the star, Pele;
ten Jovian masses;
spiraling inward;
temperatures soaring;
atmosphere distended into a 280,000 kilometer ovoid;
storms larger than terrestroid planets;
now orbiting only a million kilometers above the stellar photosphere;
revolving in less than half an Earth day and accelerating;
rotating in fifteen hours, slowed by tidal bulges;
night side flickering with lightnings reflected from planet-sized clouds, flashing with explosions or other atmospheric events;
day side burning, emitting incandescent gasses - some breaking free;
storms pouring along the inner tidal bulge;
a core of metallic hydrogen;
very few heavy elements.

Kzin

I say periodically and again now that tomorrow must be preparation for a Latin class the following day, therefore less time for blogging. Other activities, like today a six mile walk by the canal and the Bay, also interrupt reading and blogging.

The opening page of Poul Anderson's "Pele," in Larry Niven, Ed., Man-Kzin Wars IX (New York, 2002), informs us that:

on Kzin, kdatlyno slaves hand cultivate golden hsakh in the ancient way;

the fiber will be handwoven into cloaks to be worn at Midwinter Bloodfeast, then burnt.

We now learn that this is an established kzinti custom. Most probably, Poul Anderson created the custom for this one story and it will not be encountered again. Nevertheless, it now becomes potential background material for any future Man-Kzin Wars stories. We learn other facts about Kzin:

the kzinti call their sun the Father Sun whereas human beings call it 61 Ursae Majoris;
kzinti hunt slashtooths with spears but must avoid a pride and find one alone;
they make doors of flamewood;
hookbeaks hover so might be bird equivalents;
kzinti spaceships are named Swordbeak and Snapping Sherrek;
the Hero's Tongue has no words for "government" or "purely scientific";
we expect to meet High Admiral Ress-Chiu again but, of course, he died fighting beasts in the Patriarchal Arena after issuing disastrous orders in "Inconstant Star";
"'It was good sport.'" (p. 5)

Would it really be possible to run a high tech civilization on such a basis? It helps when we learn that kzinti savages were enslaved by a space-traveling race and stole all their technology from them.

Overlapping Trilogies

(I have discovered that "Man-Kzin Wars IX" looks like "Man-Kzin War Six" if it is typed in lower case without punctuation or spaces: mankzinwarsix.)

"Iron" by Poul Anderson is in The Man-Kzin Wars (1988).

"The Children's Hour" by Jerry Pournelle & SM Stirling is in Man-Kzin Wars II (1989).

"The Asteroid Queen" by JE Pournelle & SM Stirling and "Inconstant Star" by Poul Anderson are in Man-Kzin Wars III (1990).

"In The Hall Of The Mountain King" by Jerry Pournelle & SM Stirling is in Man-Kzin Wars V (1992).

"Pele" by Poul Anderson is in Man-Kzin Wars IX (2002).

Each of these trilogies should be read in the order of publication. However, how do they relate to each other chronologically? I think that "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" precedes "Inconstant Star." However, any such judgment is subject to further reading/rereading and to other readers' comments.

Future histories are a subject of endless research.

Pele II

Poul Anderson imagines yet another unexpected hazard in a strange planetary system. As a gas giant of ten Jovian masses falls toward its sun, Pele, planetary convulsions spew iron into the upper atmosphere where Pelean ultraviolet splits molecules into ionized atoms. Next, the chaotically interacting Pelean and planetary magnetic fields form vortices that pull ferromagnetic atoms into charged pellets which, accelerated to escape velocity, are thrown like shotgun fire into space where they riddle an exploratory kzinti spaceship.

Anderson understands three kinds of psychology:

human beings who know the kzinti are unwilling to attempt a rescue;
a human being of good will who does not know the enemy does attempt a rescue;
a kzin can only attempt to kill his monkey rescuers...

Pele

Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Man-Kzin Wars (New York, 2002), pp. 3-95.

Two villainous organizations in popular fiction, SPECTRE and THRUSH, execute their own failures. This tradition goes right back to SMERSH executing Le Chiffre, the villain of the first James Bond novel. The kzinti observe the same custom except that their failures die fighting. The High Admiral whose schemes our heroes foiled in the previous story has willingly faced wild beasts in the Patriarchal Arena, but now a member of the same house wants to regain the estate as well as to gain a full name and the right to breed. (What an apology for a rational species!)

Once before, a kzin on his home planet had to use an English word in conversation because there was no exact equivalent in the Hero's Tongue. On that occasion, the English word was government. Now it happens again, this time with the phrase, "'...purely scientific.'" (p. 6) The kzinti, aggressive feline hunters, disparage "monkey curiosity."

Our former heroes do not transport the exploratory expedition in this third story but Peter Nordbo's daughter, Tyra, whom we know, does join the expedition and is accompanied by one Craig Raden, so maybe this story will focus on her and him? (I am only just starting to read Chapter 3 of 17.)

Man-Kzin Wars IX

OK. Man-Kzin Wars IX has arrived, a large cheap second hand hardback. For the past few days, I have been Comics Appreciating. This morning, I will walk by the river under a blue sky to the gym.

"Pele" by Poul Anderson is slightly shorter than his previous Man-Kzin Wars stories, less than a hundred pages. It again features Robert Saxtorph and Peter Nordbo, now in business together.

The book also contains three stories by other authors, including the creator of the kzinti, Larry Niven. Thus, and not for the first time, Niven himself adds to this franchised sub-series.

The original Star Trek TV series wound up as just one period of a longer history - sandwiched between a prequel and several sequels in diverse media. Comparably, the fourteen volume Man-Kzin Wars can be read as a space war series in its own right or as part of a much longer history stretching from twentieth century interplanetary exploration to the Fleet of Worlds Trilogy and the Ringworld Tetralogy. But I will probably not read a lot more of Man-Kzin Wars than Anderson's three contributions.

Franchise Universes

Call Me Joe and Man-Kzin Wars IX are traveling at sub-light speed from Amazon. Meanwhile, let us consider whether it would be a good idea if Poul Anderson's estate and publishers were to franchise sections of some of his many series, e.g., the Time Of Troubles or the Long Night in the History of Technic Civilization.

Such continuations by other authors would have to be done very well or not at all. There are many unanswered questions in the Technic History - but there are so many that it would never be possible to answer them all.

There are several potential sub-series:

the trader team after Coya had joined it;
the team that Chee Lan joined after Falkayn's team was disbanded;
what van Rijn did later;
the continuing adventures of Diana Crowfeather and her companions;
more about Roan Tom and about the Commonalty Rangers -

- but even this is in no way a complete list.

Continuations of the Time Patrol series would present special problems, to be addressed later. (Right now, my son-in-law is coming out of hospital today so there is some family activity here.)