On Arzun

"Sargasso of Lost Starships."

There is an "...old ruined highway..." (p. 408) but would the Arzunians, able to teleport, have needed roads? (If yes, then they would have constructed them telekinetically.)

"A lonely bird, cruel-beaked and watchful, hovered on great black wings far overhead, waiting for them to die." (ibid.)

Yet another bird of prey.

When I knew that there was an as yet uncollected Technic History installment entitled "Sargasso of Lost Starships," I expected something like a hard sf story set in a planetary system where disused interstellar spaceships had drifted together into a common orbit, as had happened once in a Dan Dare story, not an action-adventure story where men from Earth fight beautiful humanoid aliens with swords. (As in the first two Dominic Flandry stories, the use of swords in a technological future is rationalized.)

Donovan is a defeated enemy of the Terrans and has previously established a rapport with an Arzunian so which side is he on? Does he know?

Telekinesis

"Sargasso of Lost Starships.", pp. 405-406.

Tetsuo Takahashi, ship's exec on the Ganymede, theorizes that:

life is "'...linked to the primary atomic probabilities...'" (p. 406);

these are "'...the psi functions which give the continuous-field distribution of matter-energy in space-time...'" (ibid.);

thus, conscious will, acting through the unified field of space-time, is able to control matter and energy outside the organism;

Arzunian animals are able to use parapsychical powers to deflect blaster bolts;

the intelligent race has more highly developed powers.

Dass adds that some human beings have a slight para power, enabling them to control dice, electron beams etc.

Donovan explains the extent and limits of the powers:

the range of the Arzunian animals' powers is only a few kilometers whereas the dominant species' range extends to the fringe stars of the Nebula;

any further than that and "'...dispersion limits them...'" (p. 406);

they must make up differences of potential energy from their own metabolisms;

the Arzunians not only control matter and energy by telekinesis but also travel faster than light by using "'...the same subspatial principles as our ships...'" (p. 406);

transporting only themselves, some air and portable sacrifices from fringe planets, they do not need atomic engines;

getting all that they need from their worshipers, they do not want to conquer the Galaxy;

able to manipulate matter directly, they have never developed mechanics or learned physics and chemistry;

unless distracted, they can deflect a bullet and even turn it against the person who fired it;

thus, a sword might be more effective against them than a gun;

they can neither read minds nor control other organisms because living nerve currents heterodyne their matter-control.

In the Technic history, the principle of FTL is not subspatial but quantum mechanical.

The Terrans will use their blaster flames to shape swords, axes and spears from the metal and plastic scattered by the spaceship crash.

Stellar Deduction II And New Information

See Stellar Deduction.

The planet has breathable air, ice and vegetation;

atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere would not survive the expansion of the sun "'...without artificial help...'"; (p. 402)

therefore, the planet is inhabited.

Donovan, who has been here before, adds that:

the star is near the center of the Black Nebula;

it is in a hollow space where there is not enough dust to retard the planet and make it spiral inward to collide with the star;

further, the star has the same velocity as the Nebula and therefore stays in the hollow space.

Questions:

How can there be a hollow space in a dust cloud?
Do the Nebulites/Arzunians keep the space clear of dust psychokinetically?

Screen Adaptations

Plans were at an advanced stage to film some of James Blish's sf novels, with Blish involved in the writing (see Films II), but it did not happen.

If anyone ever adapts either Foundation or Lensman to screen, then I hope that the opportunity will be taken to improve on the originals whereas, if Poul Anderson's Technic History is to be adapted, then I will will want the adaptation to be as accurate and as authentic as possible.

Neil Gaiman wrote American Gods, novel and TV series. It seems that this franchise, so to call it, is a premise and a set of characters and that, whereas the TV series begins as dramatization of the novel, it then becomes a different development of the characters from the original premise.

But such liberties should not be taken with Poul Anderson's works.

Stellar Deduction

"Sargasso of Lost Starships" , pp. 401-402.

The Imperial spaceship, Ganymede, crashes on a planet;

the sun is visibly an old red dwarf star;

planets form early in a star's evolution;

therefore, the planet is also old.

Surface rocks are vitrified;

this would have happened when the star's energy output intensified just before its collapse to dwarf size;

but the rocks are nevertheless eroded which would have taken millions of years;

therefore, the planet is by now so old that its rotation is slow and its nights are long.

Spacemen make such deductions on the basis of their astrophysical knowledge and experience.

Making Connections

("The Chapter Ends" was published in Dynamic Science Fiction. Some other post images have similarly obscure explanations.)

Poul Anderson's Technic History features a Terran Empire ruled from Archopolis whereas both his "The Star Plunderer" and his "The Chapter Ends" refer to a First Empire ruled from Sol City. However, "The Star Plunderer" became a pivotal story in the Technic History whereas "The Chapter Ends" became the culmination of the Psychotechnic History.
-copied from here but see also the combox discussion.

"'Read your history sometime. When the Commonwealth broke up in civil wars two hundred years ago it was hell between the stars. Half savage peoples who never should have left their planets had learned how to build spaceships and were going out to raid and conquer. A dozen would-be overlords scorched whole worlds with their battles.'"
-"Sargasso of Lost Starships," p. 384.

This fits with unscrupulous Polesotechnic League merchants selling spaceships and nuclear weapons to barbarians. See Polesotechnic Problems.

"'You can't have anarchy on an interstellar scale. Too many people suffer. Old Manuel I had the guts to proclaim himself Emperor of Sol - no pretty euphemisms for him, an empire was needed and an empire was what he built. He kicked the barbarians out of the Solar System and went on to conquer their home territories and civilize them.'" (ibid.)

That is exactly what Manuel Argos said that he would do in "The Star Plunderer."

"That meant he had to subjugate stars closer to home, to protect his lines of communication. This led to further trouble elsewhere. Oh, yes, a lot of it was greed, but the planets which were conquered for their wealth would have been sucked in anyway by sheer economics. The second Argolid carried on, and now his son, Manuel II, is finishing the job. We've very nearly attained what we must have - an empire large enough to be socio-economically self-sufficient and defend itself against all comers, of which there are many, without being too large for control.'" (pp. 384-385)

That paves the way for the Terran Empire as we see it in The People Of The Wind and in the Dominic Flandry series. In Flandry's time, the Empire is no longer growing but is reluctantly resisting the Merseian Roidhunate which is.

"'You should visit the inner Empire sometime, Donovan, and see how many social evils it's been possible to wipe out because of security and central power.'" (p. 385)

I would like to read a novel set in the inner Empire. A series about a man going outside the Empire to defend it does not tell us much about conditions inside the Empire itself.

"'But we need this sector to defend our Sagittarian flank so we're taking it. Fifty years from now you'll be glad we did.'" (ibid.)

This sounds like the Empire waging war with Ythri to readjust the border in The People Of The Wind.

The speaker derides the defeated rulers of Ansa:

"'What did your precious Families do but hunt and loaf and throw big parties? Maybe they did fulfill a magisterial function - so what? Any elected yut could do the same in that simple a society.'" (p. 384)

The families who had founded the domains on Hermes in Mirkheim were more productive.

"'But rights and wrongs aside, the Empire had to annex Ansa, and when you wouldn't come in peaceably you had to be dragged in.'" (ibid.)

Other forcibly annexed planets were Aeneas and Brae.

What Next For The Blog?

It is fascinating. I will finish rereading Poul Anderson's "Sargasso of Lost Starships," then might tackle The People Of The Wind even though I have been through that novel a lot of times before. The object will be to learn as much as possible about Ythrians. The novel follows three short stories set on Avalon, one on Ythri and one in an Ythrian spaceship. Each narrative has to repeat the basic information about the Ythrians but there can be and is more in the novel. I do not know what will come after that.

I have not fully recovered from that cold which is why I have been staying at home and blogging almost non-stop. I hope that interrupted family and social activities will resume this week. Right now, I should be rereading Stieg Larsson or going to bed instead of posting so late at night.

I recently read SM Stirling's Fifth Millennium, Volume 1 (see here), where I found curiosities like a shaman with a strange perspective on the fourth dimension so I might well venture further in that direction before long.

Starships And Star Trek

I have made many comparisons with Star Trek.

Poul Anderson's "Sargasso of Lost Starships" has a human spaceship trapped in a Black Nebula by beautiful humanoid aliens with superior psychic powers and therefore obviously is a potential Star Trek episode. Larry Niven adapted a Known Space short story as a Star Trek animated episode, then Alan Dean Foster novelized the animation. A.E. van Vogt's The Voyage Of The Space Beagle is another potential Star Trek sequence and even has a Spock-like Japanese character. Charles Montieth, the British publisher, described James Blish's Cities In Flight as "...a higher and greater Star Trek." (Quoting from memory.)

I have posted about Spaceship Stories which obviously include Star Trek and much prose sf by Anderson and others. Some works would be easily adapted to Star Trek; others not.

Subtronics

"Sargasso of Lost Starships."

See also Sargasso Of Lost Starships and Transonic.

The Ganymede's subtronics are out so that they cannot send information back but there are no "subtronics" in the Technic History. There is only radio, limited to light-speed, or modulation of hyperpulses, limited to a maximum distance of a single light year.

In his "INTRODUCTION," (pp. 363-365) Michael Karageorge cites the scholar, D.H. Thomas, who claims that the narrative displays a close knowledge of the technology of the period. I suspect that this is really Hank Davis warning us to look out for technological discrepancies.

Three Series

In “Hunters of the Sky Cave,” Flandry reveals that the Empire he has defended in “Tiger by the Tail,” “Honorable Enemies,” “The Warriors from Nowhere” and “The Game of Glory” is the same Empire that the leader of a slave rebellion, Manuel Argos, had founded in “The Star Plunderer.” In “A Plague of Masters,” Flandry reveals that Manuel’s Empire was preceded by the Polesotechnic League of Nicholas van Rijn’s period as described in “Margin of Profit” and The Man Who Counts. Since mercantile expansion was later followed by imperial decline, the combined series is about social change.
-copied from here.

This shows us that not two but three series came together to form the Technic History. "The Star Plunderer" was already part of a series because it had a sequel, "Sargasso of Lost Starships." Both refer to the secondary drive, not the hyperdrive, and "Sargasso..." tells us that the Empire proclaimed, then founded, by Manuel is nearly complete under the rule of his grandson, Manuel II.

The Ythrians were not a fourth independent series because their first story refers to planets introduced in the Polesotechnic League series.

"Sargasso..." describes the Shalmuans as originally aggressive which does not fit with what information we have about them but we remember that "Sargasso..." is a partly fictional narrative.