Red In The Morning

The novel ends: "Above the cliffs, a few eastern clouds turned red." (11)

This is mixed symbolism. Red is the color of sunsets. Something is ending. But these are eastern clouds. This is a morning. Something is beginning. We will see what when we turn to the next work in the History.
-copied from here.

I was reminded of the conclusion of Mirkheim by this passage:

"Murcheson's Eye had long since vanished. Now the east was blood-red in a sunrise that still startled Whitbread. Red sunrises were rare on inhabitable worlds."
-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote In God's Eye (London, 1979), p. 372.

We have a saying:

"Red sky at night,
"Shepherd's delight.
"Red in the morning,
"Shepherd's warning." (See here.)

Dornford Yates used the phrase, "Red in the morning...," as the dramatic title of a novel.

By describing red sunrises, Anderson and Niven & Pournelle warn the reader of stormy weather ahead.

Searching the blog for sunrises and sunsets shows how often I have found occasion to praise Anderson's descriptions of nature.

Substantial Reading

I am continuing to reread Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye first because it has inspired reflections relevant to the blog and secondly because I have become sufficiently involved with the narrative to want to follow it to its conclusion, then maybe
tackle the sequel.

An sf novel gains substance when it is incorporated into a future history series. Spot the odd man out in this list:

an imminent cosmic collision is detected by the inhabitants of the spindizzy-powered planet, He, as it flies between galaxies;

the Ringworld is explored by a Puppeteer, a kzin, a man and a teela;

the Mote System is explored by the warships MacArthur and Lenin from the Second Empire of Man;

the planets Ythri and Gray/Avalon were discovered during the Grand Survey;

the planet Merseia, shielded from supernova radiation by agents of the Polesotechnic League, later became the principal adversary of the Terran Empire;

the planet Satan is exploited by the Solar Spice & Liquors Company;

the planet Mirkheim is exploited by the Supermetals Company until the Baburites go to war over it;

Avalon, jointly colonized by human beings and Ythrians, is attacked by Terran Imperials, including a Cynthian and a Jerusalem Catholic;

a Wodenite Jerusalem Catholic enters the Patrician System just before Admiral Magnusson, a Merseian sleeper, rebels against the Terran Empire;

the Cloud Universe is explored by a Ranger of the Commonalty;

Orbitsville is colonized by human beings from a future Earth.

Companion Volumes

Before Baen Books collected Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization as The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis:

the van Rijn series ended with Mirkheim and the Flandry series began with Ensign Flandry;

between Mirkheim and Ensign Flandry were two companion volumes, The People Of The Wind and The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

the Earth Book contained twelve previously published works with twelve newly written introductions and one newly written conclusion;

the twelve previously published works are set earlier than The People Of The Wind whereas the thirteen newly published passages are a sequel to that novel;

eight of the twelve previously published works complete the history of the van Rijn period;

of the remaining four, two are set earlier than van Rijn and two later.

The Technic Civilization Saga presents the entire Technic History in chronological order of fictitious events although this means that twelve later written introductions and one later written conclusion are presented before the novel to which they are an extended sequel. The best way to read the History is to refer to the seven volumes of the Saga together with the Earth Book as a separate volume. The compilation and publication of the Earth Book by Hloch on Avalon is itself an event in the History occurring after the Terran War described in The People Of The Wind. Thus, "Margin of Profit," the earliest van Rijn story, can be read both as an earlier installment of the Technic History series and as a later disclosure presented by Hloch centuries after van Rijn's death.

Dinner At The Winged Cross And In An Airship

An unexpected pleasure in SM Stirling's fiction has been descriptions of food. I returned to Poul Anderson's works in search of similar passages. One likely prospect was Nicholas van Rijn's "...small, strictly private farewell dinner..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 12) for David and Coya Falkayn. However, this meal is alluded to rather than described in loving detail. We are told that:

such a dinner would last for a couple of hours from caviar to cheese;
in this case, the meal is preceded by beer, cold akvavit and various smoked seafoods;
other senses are also addressed - Mozart and incense in the air, iridescent vest and plum-colored trousers on the Falkayns' host.

Back in Stirling's Angrezi Raj, Cassandra King, traveling in an airship, dines on:

"...baffla wheat cakes rich with ghee..." (The Peshawar Lancers, p. 24);
"...pungent lentil dal soup..." (ibid.);
"...sweet laddoos dumplings..." (ibid.);
"...spicy rogan josh..." (ibid.);
shami-kebab;
sheermal bread;
skewered iced mango and watermelon;
Assamese tea.

(For me, coffee would complete the meal.) I have deliberately quoted Stirling's evocative adjectives: rich; pungent; sweet; spicy! Descriptions of food are one kind of narrative in which I think that Stirling surpasses Anderson.

The Richest Volume

Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, may be the richest of the seven volumes in the Saga. It begins in the Solar Commonwealth with Mirkheim and ends in the Domain of Ythri with The People Of The Wind. Arguably, these are the two best of the several novels in Poul Anderson's Technic History. Each describes a war, not just the combat but also the tension mounting before hostilities commence, as well as the diversity of opinions on both sides of the conflict.

In Mirkheim, the hydrogen-breathing Baburites, secretly backed by a cartel of Polesotechnic League companies, the Seven in Space, wages war against the Solar Commonwealth whose government is integrated with another cartel, the Home Companies. Babur also occupies the human colony planet, Hermes. We favor neither Sol nor Babur but Hermes and the independent League companies.

In The People Of The Wind, the Terran Empire, successor state to the Solar Commonwealth, tries to annex Avalon, a planet of the Domain of Ythri. Although Terra defeats Ythri, the latter has no authority to order Avalon to yield. We favor not Terra but Avalon although, later in the Technic History, we will prefer Terra to its rival, Merseia, but at the same time will be pleased to see Freehold assert its independence from Terra. This is realistic, if not real, history.

Perspectives

In Poul Anderson's The Man Who Counts, Nicholas van Rijn and Sandra Tamarin are together on Diomedes. In Anderson's Mirkheim, their son, Eric, meets van Rijn and David and Coya Falkayn. Thus, we see these three familiar characters through the eyes of this newly introduced son of van Rijn who is our temporary viewpoint character.

Coya's face is delicate and more than pretty. Her voice is lovely and low. David's face is rakishly shaped but currently grim. Regular readers might observe that David's maturation during the Polesotechnic League series is more pronounced even than that of Dominic Flandry in his series. At the end of this chapter, David will inform his employer and patron, van Rijn, that, following the death of his, David's, older brother, Michael, he is now head of the family and president of the Falkayn domain on Hermes so that is where his first duty now lies.

"Van Rijn's visage...was the most mobile and least readable of the three."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 176.

This encapsulates everything that we know about van Rijn. His face and bodily bulk will energetically play the role of genial host but his innermost thoughts will be articulated only when expedient.

Coya explains to Eric:

"'...for a long time in the Solar System...the issue has been what shall be final arbiter. The state...or a changeable group of individuals, whose only power is economic...'" (p. 177)

I paraphrase because I have previously discussed these issues here and especially here. I think that one other final arbiter is possible: an educated and informed working population routinely controlling advanced technology, nanotech etc, in order to address the needs of, and also to facilitate the free development of, each individual. A social reorganization on this basis would make both money and bureaucracy redundant and therefore would be opposed both by League companies and by the Solar government.

Will technological advances make such a reorganization necessary? Will advanced technology used competitively also be used destructively as in the Babur War?

Coya's Idea

David Falkayn thinks that, after the Babur War, he:

"'...should be quite content to settle down on Earth...'"
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p.262.

Coya replies:

"'You won't. Nor will I. If nothing else, it's no world for Juanita and Nicky. You don't imagine the war will cleanse it, do you? No, the rot can only grow worse. We're getting the hell out while we still can.'" (ibid.)

He wonders, "'Hermes -'" but concludes, "'We'll see. It's a big universe.'" (ibid.)

This is the first hint of the colonization of Avalon and the idea originated with Coya. Nicholas Falkayn is the great-grandson of Nicholas van Rijn and the father of Nathaniel Falkayn who will be born on Avalon. Nat stars not in a substantial novel but in a Boy's Life short story. A future history series can and should incorporate different kinds of writing. For example, the Terran Empire is the setting both for space opera action-adventure fiction and for serious theoretical discussion of the decline of civilizations.

David and Coya also have a granddaughter who is older than Nat because it is she who names Avalon before the colonists go there.

Heavier Elements

Four ways heavier elements are scattered through space:

solar winds
dying red giants
novae
supernovae

Such elements that are necessary for life:

carbon in proteins
calcium in bones
oxygen

Elements heavier than iron generated by supernovae:

copper
gold
uranium
tiny proportions of stable supermetals

I apologize to any page viewers who have even the slightest amount of scientific knowledge. I found this summary helpful in itself and as part of the background to Mirkheim. The idea of a planetary core covered with heavy metals and supermetals occurred to John W Campbell in our universe and to David Falkayn in the Technic History universe.

Hydrogen And Helium

There are two ways to reread a text. The first way is just a second reading. The second way is a careful examination of each paragraph for note-taking or, nowadays, blogging purposes. I found a wealth of information in "Lodestar," which has led me back into Mirkheim.

One passage read several times previously suddenly impressed me with a detail that I do not remember having noticed before. Poul Anderson informs his readers of relevant cosmogony by having Adzel screen documentary coverage of the Mirkheim crisis. The speaker intones:

"We believe all matter began as a chaos of hydrogen, the smallest atom. Some of it was fused in the primordial fireball to form helium; more of this process happened later, in the enormous heat and pressure at the hearts of stars which condensed from that gas. And there the higher elements were built..."
-Poul Anderson, Rise of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 42.

I had known that:

hydrogen is the first and smallest atom;
helium is next in size;
there was a lot of hydrogen and a much smaller quantity of helium at the Beginning;
stellar fusion generates heavier elements -

- but had overlooked the fact that there was pre-stellar fusion and that that is where the original helium came from.

I am currently rereading Mirkheim for information about Coya Conyon/Falkayn but find that I continue reading even when Coya goes offstage. Technic civilization becomes more alive with each detail and datum.

Early tomorrow morning, I will drive Sheila, to whom I have been married since 1974, into the next county for a hip replacement operation which will be followed by several months of recuperation. Posts may be fewer and further between for a while.

Conditions On Earth

In Mirkheim:

a pontoon city floats across the Philippine Sea - it is referred to as if the reader were familiar with it;

pumpships draw minerals from the seabed to feed plankton;

there has been a Classical Revival in music;

the best antisenescence buys a hundred years of life.

It will be more than that in the twenty fifth century. I recently heard that, other things being equally, people born now in developed countries will have a life expectancy of a hundred and twenty - although "other things being equal" is a major qualification, especially at present.

I would like to blog more but duty calls.

Ages

In Mikheim, Prologue, Y minus 9, David Falkayn is forty one. He is also thirty years younger than Nicholas van Rijn and eighteen years older than Coya. Thus, van Rijn is seventy one and Coya is twenty three. (Have I got that right? Every time I publish calculations here, I reread them and find that I have got them wrong.) However, in "Lodestar," set slightly earlier, Coya was twenty five. A recently posted chronology shows that Poul Anderson exercised tight control over the chronological relationships between events in this crowded part of the Technic History. The stated numbers of years elapsed are usually consistent.

Falkayn is thirty three in the opening passage of "Lodestar." Thus, ten years later, when Coya is twenty five, he should be forty three which does make him eighteen years older.

Van Rijn is usually, not always, described as seen by another character. Trader team stories are narrated from Falkayn's point of view unless the characters separate. Thus, both Adzel and Chee Lan are alone at different times on Merseia. In accordance with these rules of thumb, "Lodestar" divides into a trader team passage narrated from Falkayn's point of view and a van Rijn passage narrated from the point of view of a new character, his granddaughter, Coya Conyon. Coya becomes a heroine of the series and I will reread the passages of Mirkheim in which she features.

When, in that Mirkheim Prologue passage, Hanny Lennart of the Home Companies warns van Rijn not to oppose the Garver bill, she says that, "The popular mood being what it is..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 15), he would be bound to fail. Here is another clue about social conditions on Earth. Sure, the Commonwealth government, the Home Companies and the media will manipulate the "popular mood." Nevertheless, that mood also represents a global population many of whom can think for themselves. I would want my union, not van Rijn, to control my pension fund. Van Rijn complains that the unions are tied in with government. I would want my union to be independent of the government. So there would be plenty to play for if we were citizens of the Solar Commonwealth.

Van Rijn does not want to discuss the unwelcome news but Coya suggests that he will feel better if he does. Thus, of course, the author through Coya's intervention informs the reader of current political developments.

More On "Lodestar" And Mirkheim

Mirkheim discloses a little more about social conditions on Earth. Loyalties become more personal as confidence in public institutions declines despite the arrogant claim of a Homes Companies director that the Solar Commonwealth "'...has had fifty years of progressive reforms to strengthen democracy.'" (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 68)

The Polesotechnic League series mainly expresses the views of those who want to get out into space more than anything else. Entire species feel held back by their inability to afford off-planet training and careers for their more gifted members. Coya Conyon provides a welcome contrast. She is content to work as an astrophysicist at Luna Astrocenter and to see other planets as a tourist. Granted that Luna is off Earth but only just! Most Anderson characters would not be content with that in an era of faster than light interstellar travel. "The stars" attract them.

Coya joins the trader team when she marries David but stops, and persuades him to stop, a mere five years later when she starts a family. Unlike an earlier "...less settled generation..." (p. 34), Coya regards a stable Terrestrial home for her children as more important than roaming around in space. This is, effectively, a comment on her grandfather who had never married and had at least two children by different women.

Fashions II

See here.

"They had both stopped space roving when their Juanita was born, because it meant indefinite absences from Earth. An older, more hedonistic, less settled generation than Coya's had bred enough neurotics that she felt, and made her husband feel, children needed and deserved a solid home. And now she had another on the way."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 34.

(The next installment of the Technic History is a short story about that second child's son.)

Is that older, more hedonistic, generation the one before Coya's or the one before that? Does Coya reflect that too many of her contemporaries are neurotics or that too many of her parents' generation were? Either way, we see social change in the Technic History.

Coya prays:

"Please, God of my grandfather Whom I don't believe in..."
-Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (New York, 2010), p. 666.

-or is it a prayer if there is no belief? I would say so. I suggest that at least some deities would heed even agnostic invocations. I say, "To Whom it may concern, to whatever gods may be..." although I cannot practice the prayer of the monotheist faiths.

In recent history, we have been used to children or grandchildren not accepting the beliefs of their elders and Coya's remark sounds like more of the same but remember that she is living in the twenty fifth century. Many fashions will have come and gone. She and her grandfather differ on this question but that does not tell us anything about their respective generations as such. However, we do feel that we get a good sense of changing social mores in that future century.

Fine Tuning The Chronology

See here and here.

Trying to fill in a bit more of the chronology:

2482  Satan episode
           Tametha uprising
           David Falkayn seeks and finds Mirkheim
2489  Supermetals begins trading
2492  Van Rijn repeats Falkayn's search
           Coya Falkayn joins the trade pioneer crew
2497  The trade pioneer crew disbands
2599  Knowledge of Mirkheim is made public
2500  The Babur War

I have started with Sean M Brooks' date of 2482 for the Satan episode and have added years in accordance with what is either said by the characters or stated by the omniscient narrator. Some of what is said suggests that my dating may be out by at most one year but no one gets down to specific months so this is the best that I can manage for the time being.

Addendum, 14 Jan '15: I have had to revise this Chronology because I got some details wrong, I don't know how. The data are:

Tametha and Falkayn's search happen shortly after the Satan episode;
van Rijn visits Mirkheim ten years after the Satan episode and three years after Supermetals starts;
David and Coya become linked when van Rijn is at Mirkheim;
Coya joins the team after marrying David;
the team disbands five years later;
Mirkheim becomes public knowledge one year before the Babur War;
the war happens eighteen years after David found Mirkheim.

Eka-World

"Eka" is a Sanskrit term! See here.

The short story title, "Lodestar," and the novel title, Mirkheim, refer to the same fictitious heavenly body which is called "Mirkheim," not "Lodestar," in the series. Before she knows its name, Coya Conyon in "Lodestar" gives it yet another appellation:

"...the murk and chill and weight and radiation and millionfold perils of Eka-World...."
-Poul Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (New York, 2010), p. 672.

I had to google "eka" and was surprised that it was not Greek. See the above link.

The omniscient narrator of "Lodestar" informs or reminds us that the primordial element is hydrogen-1, one proton and one electron, "...with which creation presumably began..." (p. 655). But where did that come from? Maybe the word "creation" should be avoided or at least clarified? Of course, what the narrator means is something like "this observable phase of creation/the universe." Hydrogen-1, still the bulk of this universe, condenses into stars hot enough to melt atoms into heavier elements which are spread through space not only by novae and supernovae, as I already knew, but, "...more importantly...," (p. 656) by red giants. A later generation of stars starting with heavier elements generates planets with life.

Atoms with too many protons are unstable because they generate repulsive forces that overcome the attractive forces. However:

"Beyond a certain point, nuclei become more stable." (p. 657)

The first such, element 114 or eka-platinum, would be industrially useful but cannot be produced artificially even on Satan. Then the new Supermetals Company starts selling it and other supermetals in quantity...

The rogue planet Satan bypassing the blue giant Beta Crucis in a hyperbolic orbit becomes a base for the industrially valuable transformation of elements into heavier isotopes when its cryosphere becomes atmosphere and hydrosphere, coolants for heat waste. (Copied)


Falkayn spells out why Satan alone is ideal for producing heavier isotopes. This cannot be done:

on inhabited planets because heat and radioactive waste would make them uninhabitable;
on uninhabited planets because heat waste added to solar radiation would vaporize the rivers needed for coolants;
on uninhabited planets with orbiting albedo-raising dust clouds because these would trap home-grown heat;
in newly formed systems because factories would be bombarded by meteors and asteroids;
on airless planets because the necessary heat exchangers are expensive and put engineering limits on the size of a plant;
on Jovoid planets because free hydrogen diffuses through materials and interferes with nuclear reactions;
on ordinary rogue planets because temperatures near absolute zero affect the properties of matter and because liquid water and gaseous atmosphere are necessary coolants. (Copied)

A Mystery Solved?

See here.

The opening passage of the Prologue of Poul Anderson's Mirkheim states that:

a massive planet orbited a massive star;
there may have been smaller planets;
however, the star exploded, utterly destroying any lesser planets;
only the core of the massive planet remained.

In the earlier published "Lodestar," the astrophysicist, Coya Conyon, had explained the unusual existence of any planet near a giant star. The massive, superjovian, barely substellar, planet was not simply in orbit around the massive star but was its partner in a double system. It was the probability of such an unusually matched double star that had been calculated by Falkayn, then by Coya working for van Rijn. If this is the case, then there is no need to postulate any planetary system in orbit around the giant star.

The Prologue of Mirkheim describes the giant planet as a "...companion..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 1) of the star but also states that this companion was orbiting the star, not that star and companion were in orbit around a common center of gravity. Maybe, given the differences in their relative sizes, the point is moot? An astronomer told me that Earth and Moon are a double planet but with its center of gravity inside the Earth. However, the Prologue of Mirkheim does seem to contradict Coya's account.

Chronology

An approximate chronology for some significant events

The Satan episode.
Shortly after, the Tamethan uprising.
Shortly after that, David Falkayn begins the search that leads him to Mirkheim.
Ten years later, Nicholas van Rijn repeats that search.
Seven years later, Leonardo Rigassi finds Mirkheim.
One year later, the Baburites seize Mirkheim.

Sources

Satan's World describes the Satan episode.
"Lodestar" describes the Tamethan uprising and van Rijn's search.
Mirkheim notes Falkayn's search and Rigassi's discovery and describes the Babur War for Mirkheim and Hermes.

Chronologically slightly confusing. Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization allows only ten years between "Lodestar" and Mirkheim but see also here.

Seeing

(Please also check Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments, here.)

"The picture showed a bit of a compartment aboard [a Baburite's] ship...The fittings and furnishings were too alien for her fully to see."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 150.

"He gazed about him, and the very intensity of his desire to take in the new world at a glance defeated itself. He saw nothing but colours - colours that refused to form themselves into things. Moreover, he knew nothing yet well enough to see it: you cannot see things until you know roughly what they are. His first impression was of a bright, pale world - a watercolour world out of a child's paint-box; a moment later he recognized the flat belt of light blue as a sheet of water, or of something like water, which came nearly to his feet. They were on the shore of a lake or river."
-CS Lewis, Out Of The Silent Planet (London, 1963), p. 46.

- in fact, a Martian "canal."

HG Wells imagined a further strange sensory experience in space. Bedford, returning to Earth in the Cavorite sphere, is enclosed in a uniform unchanging environment with no alteration of day and night. Further, he is weightless and alone. Becoming psychologically detached from his physical body and former identity, he conceives himself as an eternal consciousness peering into space-time through the aperture of Bedford.

We might in space experience what some have recounted on Earth.

"Bargaining On This Basement"

Where most people would see monsters, Nicholas van Rijn sees intelligent beings that it is possible to deal with although he does not make the mistake of thinking that their intelligence is like ours or, even worse, that it is some Platonic Idea of "Reason." Instead, he finds out how they evolved and thus what they value. He showed this on T'Kela and when responding to his employees' reports from Cain.

Now he negotiates with four-eyed, eight-legged, hydrogen-breathing, collectivist Baburites who have waged war against Technic civilization. The Baburites, realizing that they have been misled, want to make peace although the Solar Commonwealth government, serving the interests of the Home Companies, might continue to wage war demanding unconditional surrender. Van Rijn, the leading independent, suggests to the Duchess of Hermes that Hermes and the independents:

stop fighting;
exert their influence against continued conflict;
even hint that they will join with Babur to resist it;
thus, influence Commonwealth public opinion against its government.

The Duchess finds it difficult to side with "'...these...creatures. After what they've done.'" (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 278)

- but van Rijn points out that the alternative is worse. Next he proposes that:

Hermes takes over Mirkheim under a treaty stating that they will license any legitimate companies;

they tax just enough to repair damage caused by the war and to buy industrial equipment;

Babur disarms, especially since its ships would have needed continual maintenance from its supposed allies;

the Commonwealth should then make peace;

Hermes guarantees Babur's safety and a fair share in Mirkheim;

thus, Babur becomes a protectorate of Hermes.

The Duchess is dumbstruck but agrees to "'...start bargaining on this basement...'" (p. 279)

- and van Rijn swings his chair back to start doing business with the alien monster/Baburite waiting patiently on the screen.

Details And Waste

Athena Falkayn wears "...a necklace of fallaron amber." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 216) "...and fallaron trees bloomed golden..." (p. 273) beside the Palomino River. It is possible that Poul Anderson, remembering that he had used the word "fallaron" once, decided to use it again but it is more likely that he had created an entire ecology for Hermes, that many details of that ecology did not make it into the text and that this is a detail that did appear twice. A similar detail for the planet Avalon is "livewell," a plant that is introduced to Earth and that has a street named after it in an Avalonian city.

War is wasteful not only of the lives of intelligent beings but also of all that they have built. The following dialogue drives this point home:

"'The enemy are concentrated in that stout stone building,' Adzel said. 'Our first move will be to neutralize it.'
"'Destroy, you mean?' John Falkayn said. 'oh, merciful Christ, no. The records, the mementos - half our past is in there.'
"'Your whole stinking future is here,' Chee snapped.
"Positioned, the artillery cut loose." (p. 274)

Of course Colonel Falkayn must choose his whole future over half his past but I hope that, by the twenty fifth century, such choices will have ceased to be necessary. Thus, although I enjoy reading the Technic History and admire its political realism as well as its creative imagination, I hope that we will build a better future than it on Earth and in space.