Colony Planets

See here. Poul Anderson makes the capital city of a colonized extrasolar planet seem very real as do Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling. On Wunderland in the Alpha Centauri system, New Munchen is shanty suburbs and shoddy factories whereas Old Munchen is:

curving tree-lined streets between hills beside a wide river;

flowers, cafes, University quadrangles, courtyards, fountains, parks, the Ritterhuuse;

a great square with bronze statues of the Nineteen Founders;

a beercellar and fireworks after the graduation-night feast.

This is comparable to Anderson's description of Starfall on Hermes. And there is the same threat. All that has been built is vulnerable to alien aggression. It is worth fighting for but it would be fatal to fight in it with modern weapons.

Munchen On Wunderland

See Starfall On Hermes.

"The Children's Hour," Chapter III, pp. 226-227.

Pournelle and Stirling do with Old Munchen what Anderson did with Starfall:

tile roofs;
tree-lined streets curling through the hills;
frangipani, palms and gumblossom in parks by the broad blue River Donau;
flowers by pedestrian ways;
cafes;
honeygold University quadrangles;
houses with courtyards, green spaces and fountains;
the Gothic Ritterhuuse where the Landholders Council met;
bronze statues of the Nineteen Founders in the great square.

Elsewhere:

sprawling shanty-suburbs;
shoddy factories.

Three friends climbed to sit on the shoulders of the tallest statues in front of a crowd. I have seen this done to Queen Victoria in Dalton Square, Lancaster. (Scroll down.) The Lancaster statue is here and here.

Unpolluted Planets II

(Alpha Centauri A and B.)

Poul Anderson, "Pele" IN Larry Niven (Ed.), Man-Kzin Wars IX (Riverdale, NY, 2002), pp. 1-95.

See Unpolluted Planets.

The same sentiment is re-expressed when, from the main office of Saxtorph and Nordbo in Munchen, Robert Saxtorph sees:

green countryside;
scattered houses;
groves;
distant blue hills;
blue sky;
morning light from the sun, Alpha Centauri A;
white clouds;
a flock of rosewings -

- and thinks:

"Yes, Wunderland's still a lovely world, as alive as Earth used to be before people screwed her up." (2, p. 12)

That is my last gasp for tonight or rather this early morning.

Surf And Wind

"Inconstant Star," Chapter VII.

The Saxtorphs and Tyra Nordbo sit in the room overlooking the sea. See the previous post. Tyra's brother, Ib, appears life-size in a screen with behind him a glimpse through a window of the Drachenturm in Munchen.

Brother and sister cannot agree. When they have ended the contact and his image has vanished:

"The surf and the wind resounded through silence." (p. 218)

As ever in Poul Anderson's works, the wind comments.

"The Children's Hour": Some Details

"The Children's Hour."

"'Beautiful job on the false idents, by the way. If we hadn't been tipped we'd never have found them.'"
-Chapter V, p. 271.

Who tipped the Munchen Police about the two infiltrators from Sol? (If the answer is that it is clear in the text, then I will just have to reread earlier passages.)

The Police Chief has a Matisse, two Vorenagles (?) "...and a priceless Pierneef..." (Chapter III, p. 226)

When Jonah and Ingrid meet a Yakuza contact, the word, "tekkamaki," is used as a password. The Yakuza guy considers it a joke to refer to Markham as "'...our esteemed GVB...,'" which he explains as "'Gotz von Blerichgen...'" (p. 219)

It takes a while for the Man-Kzin Wars series to open out to a wider variety of authors:

The Man-Kzin Wars
Niven
Anderson
Ing

Man-Kzin Wars II
Ing
Pournelle & Stirling

Man-Kzin Wars III
Niven
Pournelle & Stirling
Anderson

I have yet to receive my copy of IV.

The Wikipedia article presents a longer list of authors for later volumes. I expect at last to read more of this series. Morecambe Library has reopened, with reduced hours, for the Lancaster District so I might be able to borrow some of those Worlds books. I continue to think that Poul Anderson's Technic History excels as a future history series. Larry Niven's Known Space History, like Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium History, differs from Anderson's in having more installments written or co-written by other authors. I have been drawn back into Known Space by Anderson's contributions and am currently appreciating its MKW period.

A Bar With Food

A Bar With Food

Harold's Terran Bar. A World On Its Own. humans only -

- is in Munchen on the human colony planet of Wunderland in the Alpha Centauri System during the kzinti occupation of that system. It is a known underworld hangout with strictly human service. Human labor, displaced from kzinti estates, is cheap.

Food served includes dark green, many-eyed, translucent-shelled, grilled grumblies. You break off the head with your fingers and dip it in sauce.

We have documented hostelries and meals and might hear more from Harald's.

What Happened Afterwards

After Poul Anderson's "Iron" and "Inconstant Star":

the Saxtorphs stayed on Wunderland;

they went into partnership with Peter Nordbo who brought needed capital and business expertise;

the main office of Saxtorph and Nordbo is high in a building with views of both Munchen and countryside;

they have agreed that Rover will avoid contact with kzinti;

the Interworld Space Commission commissions them to carry cargoes to the puppeteer tradepoint and distribute exchange goods to four human planets;

meanwhile, their ship, Freuchen, carries a Navally protected scientific expedition to Pele, where there will be kzinti contact;

Nordbo's daughter, Tyra, a professional writer, accompanies the expedition.

Because this is the Man-Kzin Wars series but not the wider Known Space series, we see Tyra encountering a kzin, not Saxtorph dealing with puppeteers.

Contributions And Interactions

In The Man-Kzin Wars (1988), "Iron" by Poul Anderson introduces Ulf Markham who dies at the end of this story.

In Man-Kzin Wars II (1989), "The Children's Hour" by Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling:

introduces Haold Yarthkin-Schotmann and his Terran Bar in Munchen on Wunderland in the Alpha Centaurian System;

features Ulf Markham - because this story is set earlier than "Iron."

In Man-Kzin Wars III (1990), "Inconstant Star" by Poul Anderson includes a scene set inside Harold's Terran Bar.

If, like me, you get into the Man-Kzin Wars series by first reading Poul Anderson's contributions, then you might think that Anderson created Harold's Terran Bar. Careful chronological analysis of the texts becomes necessary.

Seamless Sequels Settings

"Inconstant Star," Chapter II.

Recurring settings have obvious advantages for screen adaptations. Some Jeeves stories were set in London; others in New York. In a BBC dramatization, they were all in London.

The colonized planet of Wunderland is one consistent setting in the Man-Kzin Wars stories.

In Munchen:

Karl-Jorge Avenue;
St. Joachim's;
the Liberation Memorial;
the Silberplatz;
Harold's Terran Bar (scroll down);
the Weiliche Astroverein.

To the North:

Skogarna, settled by Scandinavians, with its own dialect.

There will be much more than this. These details are extracted from one chapter of a single story.

Although the Liberation from kzinti occupation was barely a generation ago, it has joined Marathon and Yorktown in history. Future history will include both everyday life and worlds-changing events.

Tyra On Wunderland

"Pele."

"...she used to watch the sea at her childhood home..." (11, p. 65)

This means much to regular readers because we have already read about that home by the sea. See The Old House On The Headland.

Tyra wants to show Craig:

"...the ancestral house and sea cliffs at Korness..." (17, p. 94)

- and:

"...the merry old inns of Munchen..." (ibid.);
Gelbstein Park with its geysers;
the view from the Lucknerberg peak;
dancers in Anholt;
etc.

Several Man-Kzin Wars installments focus on Wunderland. It becomes a well-realized location.

Overlapping Trilogies III

See here.

Ulf Markham is still alive in Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's last Man-Kzin Wars story and is killed in Poul Anderson's first Man-Kzin Wars story. Therefore, all the Pournelle-Stirling stories are set before all the Anderson stories. Simple.

In "Warriors," Larry Niven introduced the kzinti, thus creating a Man-Kzin Wars period in his Known Space future history which also features several human colony planets including Wunderland in the Alpha Centauri system.

In "The Children's Hour," Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling introduced Harald's Terran Bar in Munchen on Wunderland during the kzinti occupation.

In "Iron," Poul Anderson introduced Robert and Dorcas Saxtorph who fly from Sol to Alpha Centauri to negotiate with Commissioner Markham of the Interworld Commission after the kzinti occupation.

In "Inconstant Star," Anderson introduces Tyra Nordbo who meets with Robert Saxtorph in Harald's Terran Bar.

"The Children's Hour" and "The Asteroid Queen" by Pournelle and Stirling show us Markham before he meets Saxtorph. Their "In The Hall of the Mountain King" shows us Tyra before she meets Saxtorph.

And I think I have got that right.

"'...[the kzinti] did invent the gravity polarizer.'" (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 80)

This was said before it was learned that the kzinti got all their space technology from another race. Many, though not all, of the apparent contradictions in a series can be ironed out by reflecting that most statements are made from particular points of view. In Anderson's Technic History, are the Merseians mammals? See here.

When Saxtorph visits Harald's Terran Bar, it no longer displays a "humans only" sign. Saxtorph reflects:

"Mustn't offend potential customers or, God forbid, local idealists." (Man-Kzin Wars III, p. 175)

Those who object to a "humans only" sign are to be disparaged as "idealists"? I would experience a certain amount of social friction if I were to meet some of Anderson's characters.

There will be more but not tonight.

An Unexpected Parallel

I have found an unexpected parallel between Larry Niven's second Man-Kzin Wars story and Poul Anderson's Harvest Of Stars Tetralogy but am too tired to seek out the Anderson references this late in the evening. Clue: something growing bigger than it can on Earth.

I do not think that planetary populations would, with apparent unanimity, accept and support the extension of the death penalty in order to fill organ banks. There would be much disagreement and conflict on such an issue. So I find a major premise of the Known Space series sociologically implausible.

When a kzin is tranquil and happy, he feels - at one with the cosmos? No:

"...ready to conquer a cosmos."
-Poul Anderson, "Inconstant Star" IN Larry Niven, Ed, Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990), pp. 167-310 AT CHAPTER I, p. 173.

There is more here about kzinti psychology but this also will wait.

Anderson mentions that Munchen, the commercial, cultural and political capital city of the human colony planet, Wunderland, in the Alpha Centaurian System, has a steel-steepled St. Joachim's shimmering against the evening sky, imparting a sense of human habitation and place.