Friend And Sprite

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

Poul Anderson's Introduction tells us that this book is partly a homage to Kipling. He means Kim. For previous blog references, see here. Scroll down.

Kim is described as "Little Friend of all the World." Axor addresses Diana as:

"'...little sprite of all the world...'" (p. 214)

The Wikipdia article for Kim informs us that Robert Heinlein's Citizen Of The Galaxy, Poul Anderson's The Game Of Empire and some other works parallel Kim.

That is short but also all that I have time for tonight but there are another twenty-two chapters of The Game Of Empire. Good night. Good flight. 

Appointed Or Chance Met

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

We can be told how series characters met in their opening installment, in a flashback or in a prequel. There are perhaps two main ways that a group of people can come together.

The team of David Falkayn, Adzel and Chee Lan exists because Nicholas van Rijn appointed a Master Merchant, a planetologist and a xenobiologist of different species as his first trade pioneer crew whereas the team of Diana Crowfeather, Axor and Targovi exists because Diana, having "...passed her life among Tigeries and Seafolk...," (p. 214) already knew Targovi and happened to spot Axor in the old quarter of Olga's Landing. Axor might believe that their meeting was ordained... When he says that Diana is a godsend, she replies that she is no saint but God does not send only saints - assuming that He sends anyone or anything, of course.

We read about van Rijn, Falkayn, Adzel and references to Cynthia before that team is formed. Diana is Flandry's daughter, Targovi is Dragoika's son and Axor is a Wodenite like Adzel. So both of these teams are well grounded in earlier Technic History.

Diana thinks that Axor looks tired and reflects that he has trudged a long way in Imhotepan gravity which is only 30% greater than Terrestrial whereas Wodenite gravity is two and a half Terrestrial.

Two Tributes

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

The Jerusalem Catholic Galilean Order maintains a university in Port Campbell on Woden. Although I have mentioned Port Campbell before (see Woden), I did not allude to the fact that its name is an obvious tribute. See John W. Campbell.

Thus, in Poul Anderson's Technic History, one Wodenite, Adzel, studies at the Clement Institute whereas another, Axor, studies in Port Campbell.

And I have a feeling that there is a third such tribute somewhere about.

Familiarity With Aliens

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE.

Axor is the first Wodenite on Imhotep and Diana Crowfeather is amazed when she first sees him even though she has learned something of his species and therefore is able to identify him as such. His Anglic is fluent although "...weirdly accented..." (p. 201) but Diana has had practice with Tigeries - not that Wodenites sound like Tigeries but that both species have non-human accents.

However, surely not every Imhotepan can have heard of Wodenites? But they do know that intelligent beings of any size or shape can arrive at the spaceport and seek hospitality at the Sign of the Golden Cockbeetle. Therefore, when Diana's unusual companion enters the inn, a dozen outback miners and two joygirls:

"...gave Axor a lengthy stare, then went back to their talk, dice, and booze." (p. 205)

There is already a Tigery wearing an air helmet in the inn but members of that species are by now a common sight, common enough that a human being is able to distinguish them as individuals and might be friendly with one and not with another. It is very difficult to imagine that degree of inter-species interaction.

Future History Growth From Ensign Flandry To The Game Of Empire

The Game Of Empire.

When I summarized the Flandry series' sprawl across The Technic Civilization Saga here, I neglected to mention that the first Young Flandry novel, Ensign Flandry, ends with the urgent need to relocate some of the Starkadians, whose planet is about to be destroyed, and that, in the second Admiral Flandry novel, The Game Of Empire, communities of the two rational Starkadian species have been settled on Imhotep. Further, a spaceman from Aeneas has told Diana about Old Shen remnants on his planet, thus recalling the theme of The Day Of Their Return.

Any new installment of a future history series can both incorporate information from earlier installments and add completely new material. Thus, The Game Of Empire adds Imhotep and Daedalus, two colonized planets in the never-before-mentioned Patrician System, while at the same time referring to Starkad and Woden, to Merseians, Chereionites, Cynthians and other intelligent species - no need to go through the whole list yet again - and even to two prominent individuals, the historical Adzel the Wayfarer and the contemporary Admiral Flandry. People on Imhotep are also clearly familiar with the contemporary Admiral Magnusson whom we have not encountered before although we will soon learn more. A future history series that continued to be extended indefinitely in this manner would eventually become incredibly rich in background details, almost resembling real life in complexity. 

Grief And Fear

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWELVE.

At school, it was drilled into us only to write prose in full sentences, each with a subject and a predicate. It was difficult to tell the difference between the force of a syntactical rule and that of a moral law.

In this edition, p. 318 begins:

"Fear for the Empire, Technic society and, yes, those other societies the Empire enclosed."

"Fear" is a subject without a predicate. What is going on here? We must backtrack. The second last paragraph on p. 317 ends:

"It was that she was full of grief and fear."

A full sentence (which this is not). The last paragraph on p. 317 begins:

"Grief for her dear Ramnuans, who had given her the name 'Banner' that she still bore."

Thus, they might have been punctuated differently but it becomes clear that the paragraphs beginning "Grief..." and "Fear..." follow directly from the paragraph ending "...grief and fear." (I did have to backtrack to pick up the thread.)

One More Time

The Game Of Empire.

Having seen Flandry and Miriam walking into the autumn in the concluding sentence of A Stone In Heaven, we are delighted to see them again one more time.

Flandry confers with:

Miriam in CHAPTER TWELVE;

Olaf Magnusson in CHAPTER EIGHTEEN;

his daughter and her companions in CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

 

That is all but it is a lot. It means that Flandry is present at the very end of the novel. In CHAPTER TWELVE, we are interested to learn first that the climate modification project has begun on Ramnu and secondly that it is suspended during the emergency.

Poul Anderson's Technic History presents not only a long future history but also several fictional biographies.

Anderson Celebrates Life II

See Anderson Celebrates Life.

Never more so than in the opening chapter of The Game Of Empire where the old quarter of Olga's Landing on Imhotep in the Patrician System:

"...had grown, but more in population than size or modernity - a brawling, polyglot, multiracial population, much of it transient, drifting in and out of the tides of space."

-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ONE, p. 195.

"Life spilled from narrow streets and surged between the walls enclosing the plaza." (p. 197)

 

Booths sell multifarious wares including "...miniature computers of the inner Empire...," recorded vaz-Siravo dances from beneath the Seas of Yang and Yin, illegal blasters found in wrecked Merseian spacecraft and hot, savory food. (ibid.)

 

From the top of St. Barbara's tower in the middle of the market square, Diana sees the new quarter with the Pyramid, housing Imperial offices, the Institute campus, industries, stores, hotels and apartments. (p. 195) She keeps her sleeping bag and few possessions in "...a ruinous temple..." (p. 196)

The crowd, mainly human beings physically adapted to different planetary environments, also includes members of several other intelligent species. This is human life in an exotic setting.

Flandry In The Technic Civilization Saga

 

OK. We are contemplating how Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series sprawls across four of the seven volumes of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga. Although Merseia is introduced in Volume II and the Terran Empire in Volume III, Flandry, who defends the Empire against Merseia, does not come on-stage until the beginning of Volume IV but then remains on-stage almost continuously until somewhere in Volume VII.

Volume IV, Young Flandry

Ensign Flandry

A Circus Of Hells

The Rebel Worlds

 

Comments 

The introductory trilogy, written as a prequel to the earlier-written Captain Flandry series.

Flandry advances from Ensign to Commander.

Ensign Flandry introduces John Ridenour and A Circus Of Hells mentions Aycharaych.

Volume V, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire

"Outpost of Empire"

The Day Of Their Return

"Tiger by the Tail"

"Honorable Enemies"

"The Game of Glory"

"A Message in Secret"

Comments

"Outpost of Empire" features Ridenour but does not mention Flandry.

The Day Of Their Return is a sequel to The Rebel Worlds, mentions Flandry and introduces Aycharaych.

Those two works do not belong in a volume entitled Captain Flandry...

The following three stories are an introductory Captain Flandry trilogy.

Flandry finally meets Aycharaych in "Honorable Enemies."

Flandry has been knighted in "The Game of Glory."

The opening story of Volume VI is a direct sequel to the concluding story of Volume V.

Volume VI, Sir Dominic Flandry, The Last Knight Of Terra

"The Plague of Masters"

"Hunters of the Sky Cave"

"The Warriors from Nowhere"

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

 

Comments

"A Message in Secret" and "The Plague of Masters" belong in the same volume.

The remaining three works in Volume VI and the opening installment in Volume VII form a Flandry and Chives tetralogy.

In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Flandry captures Aycharaych who, however, is released in a prisoner exchange.

"Hunters of the Sky Cave" introduces the planet Vixen.

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows climaxes with the final Flandry-Aycharaych confrontation.

Volume VII, Flandry's Legacy

A Stone In Heaven.

The Game Of Empire.

"A Tragedy of Errors."

The Night Face

"The Sharing of Flesh"

"Starfog"

Comments 

Flandry is an Admiral in A Stone In Heaven and The Game Of Empire.

The Game Of Empire features Flandry's daughter and cameos Flandry.

The remaining four works in Volume VII are set long after Flandry's death, indeed after the Empire.

"Starfog" mentions the planet New Vixen and features remote descendants of the The Rebels World rebels.

 

Conclusions

There is a three-stage Flandry series.

The Saga is comprehensive but the volumes could have been organized differently.

A Yellow Leaf

A Stone In Heaven, XIV.

The trees and leaves are not just in the picture (see Fall In The High Sierra):

"...they stood facing in the nave made by trail and trees. A yellow leaf blew down and settled in [Banner's] hair." (p. 234)

She echoes Chee Lan in the concluding chapter of Mirkheim. See The End Of A Stone In Heaven.

Welcome to February on the Poul Anderson Appreciation blog where we have finished rereading A Stone In Heaven but not the Dominic Flandry series.