Three Senses On Aeneas And The Milky Way

The Rebel Worlds, Chapter Six.

The gold rays of the setting sun seem molten in the marsh mists and burn on the canals. Groves and plantations are blue-green or shadowed. Crags and cliffs are colored. The sky is royal blue.

Cold wind whitters. A waterfall roars. Hoofs clop. Harnesses creak and jingle. Hugh McCormac rides with his sons before waging war against the Empire.

I have tried to summarize Poul Anderson's sensory descriptions. That misty marsh is a salt marsh but I don't suppose that the wind carries the taste of salt?

When Virgil sets, stars become visible, including "...the frosty bridge of the Milky Way." (p. 424) And see here. The outer moon, Lavinia, silvers the dead sea bottom. A tadmouse pipes.

The Scum Of The Empire

Kathryn McCormac tells Dominic Flandry that the corrupt Governor of Sector Alpha Crucis, Aaron Snelund, plans to goad a rebellion, then suppress it with mercenaries.

"Afterward he'll disband them, 'long with his overlord corps. He recruited from the scum of everywhere else in the Empire, and they'll scatter back through it and vanish automatic'ly. He'll blame the revolt on subversion, and claim to be the heroic leader who saved this frontier.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT Chapter Five, p. 418.

There is that word, "scum," again. See "The Scourings Of Space," here. If a civilization generates that much "scum," then there is something wrong with the civilization! And, of course, anyone opposing Snelund is a subversive according to Snelund, a circular argument.

On Or In

(Why publish the third volume of the first Dominic Flandry trilogy and the first volume of the second Flandry trilogy in a single volume without any of the other volumes especially when there is a series between the two trilogies?)

By careful rereading of the texts, I have found a minor anomaly in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. Although Chapter Four of The Rebel Worlds describes Catawrayannis as "...a substantial town..." on the Cynthian-named planet of Llynathawr, Hloch, in his Introduction to "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" for The Earth Book Of Stormgate, states that James Ching eventually settled on, not in, Catawrayannis. Thus, readers on the Earth Book are led to believe that Catawrayannis is a planet, not a town on a planet.

The misleading preposition, "on," was repeated when the contents of the Earth Book, including Hloch's Introductions, were reproduced in Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga. Maybe this single letter can be changed in any future edition.

Catawrayannis

Catawrayannis on Llynathawr cannot compete either with Starfall on Hermes (and here) or with Zorkagrad on Dennitza 
(and here) but nevertheless impresses the reader as a real place:

the Governor's palace, big and pastel-tinted with domes and colonnades, is surrounded by gardens on its high hill;

below are terraced civil service buildings;

the wealthy live around the hill;

other dwellings blend into farms to the west and the city to the east;

the Luana River has low commercial towers on one side and slums on the other;

there is a haze and a cool spring breeze;

there are vehicles in the streets and the sky;

there are also peaceful trees - and a space warcraft passing overhead -

- a quiet environment and preparations for war.

It is also where James Ching eventually settled.

Asieneuve

Dominic Flandry commands the escort destroyer, Asieneuve, named after a land mass on the human-colonized planet, Ardeche. Her crew numbers a mere fifty and we are told that:

"...the forecastle could be packed tighter only if the Pauli exclusion principle were repealed..."
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT Chapter Three, p. 397.

Needless to say, this made me google the Pauli exclusion principle. See here. This is the sort of "joke" that gets made in hard sf. In the '60s, I read a novel - title and author's name forgotten - that began by telling us that its hero's hair was receding so fast that you would think his nose was radioactive. Such a remark establishes that we are dealing with characters who are use to dealing with and thinking in terms of scientific processes like radioactivity. (How many novels did we read in early life and subsequently forget both title and author?)

Asieneuve is a Continent-class vessel whereas the scout ship flown by Flandry in the previous novel was Comet class. Have we listed the classes of Terran spacecraft somewhere? (Addendum: We have. See here.)

Flandry enters the bridge and takes over from his non-human executive officer, Rovian of Ferra. Nowadays, we cannot avoid making comparisons with Star Trek.

Assessing Young Dominic Flandry

We quoted Lord Hauksberg's and Max Abrams' assessments in Phosphorescent Cloak. Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov adds his identical assessment:

"'You'll either be killed, young man, or you'll do something that will force us to step on you, or you'll go far indeed.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT Chapter Two, p. 384.

And later:

"'...you're off the hook and your brevet rank of commander will be made permanent. Till your next escapade gets you either broken or promoted, that is. I'd call the odds fifty-fifty.'"
-op. cit., Chapter Sixteen, p. 516.

Ydwyr's assessment is in two stages:

"'You are either very capable, Dominic Flandry, or else very lucky, and I wonder if there may not be a destiny in you.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Twelve, p. 283.

And later:

"'It becomes clear that your prior achievements were no result of luck. My compliments, Dominic Flandry.'"
-op. cit., Chapter Eighteen, p. 342.

Guion said here that Dreyfus was competent but became significant because of events. Anderson makes clear that Flandry is much more than "competent." In A Circus Of Hells and The Rebel Worlds, he displays Nicholas van Rijn's ability to satisfy apparently conflicting interests. Thus:

he works for the criminal, Leon Ammon, while serving the Empire in the process;

he preserves and enhances Ydwyr's scientific base on Talwin;

he defeats the McCormac Rebellion but also lets Kathryn McCormac kill the corrupt Governor of Sector Alpha Crucis, then helps the rebels to escape.

Thus, Flandry is guilty of murder and high treason.

Destiny In Two Universes

Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), Part Five, "Riddle Me This," pp. 256-265.

In this edition:

the Table of Contents wrongly states that Part Five begins on p. 215;
p. 256 is a title page for Part Five;
p. 257 is blank;
the text of Part Five, beginning on p. 259, has the heading "1990 A.D.";
(each chapter in the novel begins with a heading indicating the year of the events described in that chapter);
pp. 259-265 contain just over six pages of text;
they describe a conversation between Manson Everard and Guion, both of the Time Patrol, in Everard's New York apartment during a thunder storm.

Everard and Guion agree that, in a million years, the Patrol must have recruited many agents more capable than either of them. Maybe, but someone has to be the most capable?

Guion argues that whereas , e.g., Alfred Dreyfus "'...was a competent and conscientious officer...'" (p. 260), he became significant because of what happened to him but:

he was not "'...an instrument of destiny...'" (ibid.);
"'...there is no such thing as destiny.'" (p. 261);
"'There is the structure of the plenum, which we strive to preserve.'" (ibid.)

For previous discussion of the Dreyfus Affair, see The Dreyfus Affair.
For whether there is "destiny" in the Technic History, see Why Ydwyr Wants Flandry.

Descriptions, Including The Milky Way

"...the boat moved alone amidst a glory of stars."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Ten, p. 260.

"Behind her a viewscreen gave on crystal dark and a magnificence of stars."
-Chapter Twenty, p. 362.

Elsewhere: "...a wilderness of stars." See here.

"...frosty rush of Milky Way and dim gleam of sister galaxies..." (see also here)
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Young Flandry, pp. 367-520 AT Chapter One, p. 373.

"Now and then he saw [the planet] full, a round shield of brilliance, emblazoned on oceans azure with clouds argent above continents vert and tenne."
-op.cit., p. 371.

Hugh McCormac, who sees the Milky Way and the planet, has a "...dolichocephalic skull..." (p. 376) and also sees:

Alpha Crucis
Beta Crucis
Aldebaran
Arcuturus
Deneb
Polaris

Aldebaran and Arcturus, presumably within the Terran Empire, are like fires warming and lighting "...the camps of men..." (p. 371) whereas Deneb and Polaris, far beyond the Empire and even beyond its enemies, are, by contrast, "...a cold sight." (p. 372) McCormac is in Sector Alpha Crucis of the Empire. He is also from the planet Aeneas like Peter Berg whom we met long ago.

In The Rebel Worlds:

an unentitled prologue presents an alien viewpoint;
Chapter One presents Hugh McCormac's viewpoint;
Chapter Two at last reintroduces Dominic Flandry.

Either Flandry or the omniscient narrator reflects that Admiralty Center rises from the Rocky mountains:

"...as if again the Titans of dawn myth were piling Pelion on Ossa to scale Olympus."
-Chapter Two, p. 379.

And, if we pause to google everything, then we lose the plot!

Cosmic Dawn

Copied from the Science Fiction blog:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/28/cosmic-dawn-astronomers-detect-signals-from-first-stars-in-the-universe

My daughter emailed me the above link.

Writers of cosmological sf, including Poul Anderson, have incorporated stellar evolution into the plots of novels. It seems that physicists have now detected the very beginning of that evolution. Cosmic Dawn would make a good title for an sf novel although the phrase has already been used for at least two works of non-fiction. See the attached images.

I have no idea how the new discoveries can be incorporated into fiction but then I would not have been able to write The Avatar or Tau Zero either. Both of these novels by Poul Anderson describe a cosmic journey and the beginning of a universe. The journeys are by T-machines and time dilation, respectively. The time dilation occurs in an accelerating Bussard ramjet. Neither of these novels invokes "hyperspace" although Anderson also imagined different versions of that. His future history series, the History of Technic Civilization, addresses the rise and fall of civilizations against the backdrop of galaxies, spiral arms, pulsars and supernovae. Hopefully, Anderson's many successors can meet the challenge of the Cosmic Dawn.

Talwin And Beringia

Copied from Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments:

(Chalcolithic artifacts.)

On Talwin, most Ruadrath societies are chalcolithic. I have learned by googling this word.

Merseians studying the two intelligent species, Ruadrath and Domrath, on the planet Talwin in Poul Anderson's A Circus Of Hells resemble the Time Patrol studying the Paleo-Indians in Beringia in 13,211 B.C. in Anderson's The Shield Of Time. In both cases, the natives accept without question the sudden arrival of powerful strangers who, however, must not disrupt the natives' lives too much. Needless to say, Dominic Flandry on Talwin and Wanda Tamberly in Beringia find ways to be disruptive.