100x

In the Ekcolir Reality.
original cover art by Earle Bergey
and Rudolph Belarski

This is my 100th blog post of the year. Since I like to celebrate arbitrary numerical milestones, I'm going to take this as an excuse to continue my celebration of the first 100 years of the Vance Era.

As this current year moves towards its end, I'm also making preparations for 2017 and the 25th anniversary of the death of Isaac Asimov.

The subject of this blog post is a sparkling eclipse; the interface between Asimov's adventures in Deep Time and what Vance wrote about them in our previous Reality.

Retrofuturians
In the Ekcolir Reality, the replicoid of Asimov organized the Writers Block and made it possible for science fiction writers such as John Vance (an analogue of Jack Vance) to write stories that reflected events in the previous Reality: the Asimov Reality.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Hannes Bok.

Zeta claims that she also had an analogue in the Ekcolir Reality. That "earlier version" of Zeta had extensive interactions with an "earlier version" of the Dead Widowers who carried out investigations of Deep Time.

According to Zeta, that team of historical investigators in the Ekcolir Reality had a formal name that they had borrowed from Deep Time: the Historical Institute. However, on a day-to-day basis, they usually referred to themselves half jokingly as the Retrofuturians. With our attention focused on Deep Time, soon, Zeta and I were discussing exobiology from the perspective of Ifness, an agent of the Historical Institute.....

Mount Pleasant on the planet Providence

The Historical Institute
I asked Zeta if there was any relationship between "the Institute" as described in the Demon Princes series and the Historical Institute of the Durdane series. She replied, "After Dwyddion took control of the Institute, he called upon Zodiac Control to launch an investigation into the hidden force that was behind Treesong's attempt to take control of the Institute. That investigation led to discovery that the IPX was close to taking control of the production of Intersplit space drive engines by acquiring the Jarnell Corporation.

During the early period of the "Trysta Truce", R. Gohrlay was content to explore ways to adapt humans to the Bimanoid Interface by doing experiments at isolated communities such as Mt. Pleasant. However, Grean had a much more audacious plan. After allowing humans to spread outward from Earth to thousands of nearby exoplanets, Grean wanted to halt further space travel, isolate each settled world and use those worlds as biological laboratories.

In the Ekcolir Reality. Original
cover art by Edward Palfrey.

The Institute had originally been created by R. Gohrlay as a way to find mutant humans who might arise and have an altered interaction with their nanites. The Institute claimed to act so as to put controls on the pace of technological innovation. "Behind the scenes", that control was already efficiently exercised by the zeptite endosymbionts inside each human, but the Institute could function as a "honey trap" to attract mutant humans who became free of zeptite control and who resented the publicized anti-technology goals of the Institute.

When Grean began to put restrictions on human space travel, R. Gohrlay shifted the mission and purpose of the Institute. It evolved into the Historical Institute, which retained a record of every human-settled planet and it deployed a group of agents who monitored those worlds, constantly searching for useful human variants. According to Zeta, R. Gohrlay had the ability to teleport her agents from world to world, so those agents did not need to bother with space ships. During that era, one goal was to create the Ek'col as a human variant that could be used to integrate some particularly useful Asterothrope gene combinations into the human population of Earth.

Roguskhoi. Cover art
by Edward Palfrey

Later, after about 10,000 years, when humans were again allowed to travel outward from Earth, the people of planets such as Durdane were brought back inside a unified human space-faring civilization. Vance's Durdane Trilogy takes place shortly before members of the Historical Institute such as Ifness were finally able to openly interact with the people of Durdane after a 9,000 year period of that planet's isolation from Earth.

Emphyrio by Jack Vance

Somewhat later, the people of Halma were also "liberated" and fully linked into galactic civilization during the time of the second great outward migration of peoples. Humans of that time colonized more distant parts of the galaxy, including Alastor Cluster.

According to Zeta, the Retrofuturians were able to piece together a fairly coherent account of the genetic engineering and artificial selection steps that led to humans who could use the Bimanoid Interface.

Sci Fi in the Ekcolir Reality

The last steps in the long process of searching the human genomic statespace involved the Pheni and sending some of the finely crafted humans back to the 20th century from the far future of the Asimov Reality.

Jump: 125th post of 2016

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Nicotiana Endosymbionts

In the Ekcolir Reality

I've been continuing recent discussions of the secretive IPX with my collaborator Gohrlay and today learned more details about how human brain activity is influenced by the presence of a zeptite endosymbiont. I'd previously learned that the interaction between a person's brain cells and their zeptite endosymbiont can be modulated by a femtobot endosymbiont that was recently (in evolutionary terms) provided to Earthlings.

Nicotiana Endosymbionts

The Femtobot Hack

I'd previously assumed that the surprisingly important role of tobacco in human civilization depends entirely on the nicotine content of tobacco plants. That was a big mistake. According to Gohrlay, the IPX was originally created as a special Overseer workgroup that was assigned to the task of containing the danger posed to humans by tobacco. The danger of tobacco went far beyond petty issues like addiction to nicotine and cancer.

nanites

In fact, I now suspect that I was tricked into placing special emphasis on nicotine so as to distract my attention away from a more important aspect of Earth's Nicotiana Saga. I previously realized that all of planet Earth has been infested by zeptites for about 2,000,000,000 years. However, I never previously thought about the importance of zeptites or femtobots inside plants.

In the case of humans, it is clear that all animals on Earth evolved their brains in the presence of zeptite endosymbionts. A human brain cannot function without its zeptite components. Interventionist agents (the Grendels) somehow (some subtle form of genetic engineering?) caused the human species to arise on Earth as a species specifically designed for efficient tool use. However, the zeptites inside human brains easily prevented humans from using tools in a sophisticated way.

image credits

In response to the Grendel Intervention and the presence of humans on Earth, the pek then brought Prelands to Earth as a "biological cleansing agent" and the Prelands quickly and efficiently drove the human population of Earth towards extinction.

However, the pek themselves had become fascinated by humans. The humans of Earth displayed unique patterns of social behavior and the pek began their own study of the human organism. During the course of that little science project at Observer Base, a small team of human scientists developed a new science of positronics. Then, as an experiment, the pek allowed the creation of positronic robots. The positronic brain was a powerful telepathic mind-control device and the positronic robots quickly took over Obsever Base and eventually the entire galaxy (as told in Foundations of Eternity).

science fiction in Deep Time

According to Gohrlay,  Interventionists then provided the humans of Earth with a means to escape cognitive limitations caused by our zeptite endosymbionts. However, even the Interventionists recognized the dangers posed to primates by rapid technological advancement. Thus, the femtobot endosymbiont that can provide humans with access to the Bimanoid Interface was never allowed to indiscriminately infest the brains of we Earthlings. Instead, certain plants such as cultivated varieties of nicotiana were used a reservoir for those special Interventionist femtobots and those femtobots were delivered to humans in a subtle and carefully controlled way that involves access to tobacco products.

Asimov Reality

Maghylose and Xista

Eventually, the positronic robots developed their own nanites and they became aware of the existence of the Interventionist femtobots that were present inside the brains of some humans. Eventually, R. Gohrlay learned how to control and make use of those femtobots.

in the Ekcolir Reality

According to Gohrlay, femtobot endosymbionts were occasionally deployed via tobacco to select humans prior to the Foundation Reality. For the most part, R. Gohrlay was content to keep humans constrained by their zeptite endosymbionts prior to the Foundation Reality. Under the sole influence of our zeptites, humans can not create and use advanced technologies. However, when a human brain is also provided with a femtobot endosymbiont, then there is a loosening of the cognitive restrictions that are imposed by the zeptite components of our brains and we humans can then efficiently develop and use new technologies.

travel into the Primitive Era

The most famous human who was a vector for distribution of femtobot endosymbionts in the Mallansohn Reality was Senior Computer Twissell. Under the influence of the femtobot endosymbionts carried into Eternity by Twissell's cigarettes, the first technological change since the early era of Eternity took place: creation of the special time travel device that could move into the Primitive Era of Earth's timeline, prior to the creation of Eternity.

nuclear war in the Asimov Reality

In the Foundation Reality, even after Earth was rendered uninhabitable because of high radiation levels, the Vega Sector of the galaxy continued to be a source of tobacco products. In the Asimov Reality, although there was a brief nuclear war in the 20th century, only a few major population centers were destroyed by nuclear blast or seriously contaminated by radioactive fallout. Tobacco cultivation continued on Earth after the nuclear war of the Asimov Reality, but during the Space Age little use was made of tobacco for distribution of femtobots. The last major technological innovation by humans in the Asimov Reality was development of the Jarnell intersplit.

cloning experiments

In the Asimov Reality, after humans began to spread from Earth to the exoplanets of other stars, there was very little technological innovation. Under pressure from the Institute, some technologies were even suppressed. Here is how Madian Carbuke described the Institute:
"...we are a reactionary, secretive, pessimistic organization. We have agents everywhere. We know a thousand tricks to discourage research, sabotage experiments, distort data.....in the Institute's own laboratories we proceed with deliberation and discretion."

home of the Chezy Corporation

The Asimov Reality was the apex of the Time Travel War. Both the Interventionists and the Overseers were working to develop new human variants, a process that required much time and careful artificial selection of the desired traits. Individuals with promising new human gene combinations that allowed better control of the Bimanoid Interface were highly valued by both sides and fought over. Agents of the IPX and Zodiac Control constantly vied for advantage and access to any new genetic patterns that were developed by the "other side" in their seemingly endless war.

three forms of matter

Within the Asimov Reality, the Chezy Corporation of planet Triskelion A was able to develop some specialized hierion-based technologies, but other than that, human technological progress was almost completely blocked during the Space Age in that Reality.

In the Age of tryp'At
We must ask: under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, how are zeptite and femtobot endosymbionts continuing to guide and constrain human behavior?

In my personal case, I have to wonder if my own father's pipe smoking was used as a way to facilitate my exposure to femtobots and shape my behavior and guide me towards my role as Editor.

Next: the Trilateroids

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Secrets of the IPX

cover art by Gino D'Achille

I own a copy of the first DAW printing of Star King from September 1978. On page 22 Lugo Teehalt asks, "You are not of the IPX?"

Sadly, "IPX" was a typographical error. Google Books currently has two of the more recent editions of The Star King online and they both have "IPX" corrected to "IPCC".

Spatterlight Press edition

The IPCC is the Interworld Police Coordinating Company, which plays an important role in Vance's entire 5 book Demon Princes saga.

cover art by Edmund Emshwiller

Most editions of the Star King story have been printed with the title "The Star King", including the original 1963 printing in Galaxy magazine and the Spatterlight Press edition.

The IPX

in another Reality: Secrets of Ghnarumen

For decades I have had fantasies about a secretive IPX that was lurking within Vance's Oikumene. Last year, I blogged about bringing Vance's Zodiac Control into the Demon Princes saga.

I like to imagine that Zodiac Control is a secretive part of the Institute. Similarly, I imagine that within the Asimov Reality the IPX was a special services branch of the IPCC. I also like to imagine that Vance's books have been used by Interventionists as a clandestine means to provide the Editor with information about past Realities.

tryp'At Overseers

tryp'At
In the Exodemic Fictional Universe, Overseers are the "police" who watch over Earth and who try to prevent Interventionists from causing havoc.

According to Gohrlay, the IPX can be roughly translated as "inter-Reality Parnich Xilath". IPX was a term used in the Ekcolir Reality to refer to the team that worked to make sure that tryp'At Overseers would be in place to watch over Earth in the Final Reality.

source

"Parnich" can be translated into English as "ethics enforcer". The term 'parnich' implies enforcement of the Huaoshy Rules of Intervention. The word "xiplath" is a technical term that has no direct equivalent in English, but it means roughly "cultural engineer". Thus, "inter-Reality Parnich Xilath" means "those who engineer new Realities in accordance with the Rules of Intervention".

In some sense, the IPX and Zodiac Control were adversaries. The agents of Zodiac Control worked to make sure that humans would inherit planet Earth and be able to spread among the stars. The IPX worked to make sure that Earth's humans were properly constrained by the Rules of Intervention.

The Roben Report

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Henry Van Dongen, Karl Stephan
and Rafael De Soto (click image to enlarge)

Gohrlay's analogue in the Ekcolir Reality (Roben) was a fan of science fiction.  In the Ekcolir Reality, science fiction was used as a way to prepare Earthlings for First Contact with the Fru'wu.

Special thanks to Miranda Hedman (www.mirish.deviantart.com) for the DeviantArt stock photograph "Black Cat 9 - stock" that I used to create the blue "sedronite" who is in the image shown to the left.

Among the authors in the Ekcolir Reality who published information about alien visitors to Earth was Thomas Iwedon, himself the son of an Asterothrope and an Ek'col. An edition of his Miners of Earth was published along with The Repair of Time by Joan Brunner.

Joan Brunner in the Ekcolir Reality was the analogue of John Brunner in the Final Reality. In The Repair of Time, Joan provided an account of how Trysta and Grean collaborated to create the Trysta-Grean Pact, a peace accord that allowed them to work together and create the Final Reality.

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Edward Valigursky,
Edmund Emshwiller and Brian Lewis.

Other important stories that were published by Joan Brunner in the Ekcolir Reality included The tryp'At Overseers and Agent of Zodiac.

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Edmund Emshwiller,
Edward Valigursky and Ed again.

Working in collaboration with Isaac Asimov, Joan also wrote Threshold of Eternity, a sequel to The End of Eternity. In Threshold of Eternity, Joan provided an account of how the Foundation Reality was terminated. As told in that account, Andrew Harlan was captured by Overseers in the 20th century of the Foundation Reality. However, Trysta Iwedon was protected by a personal temporal field generator and she was able to cross over into the next Reality.

Another writer of the Ekcolir Reality who provided insight into the Secret History of Humanity was Betty Chandler. In her Overseers of Nicotiana, Betty explained how nicotine could be used to help humans use the Bimanoid Interface.

 The Hidden Centuries

As described to me by Gohrlay, in Agent of Zodiac, there was a stunning last page revelation. The story's protagonist (Overseer Yoseña, a member of the IPX) turns out to be a clone of Svahr (who is the mysterious titular Agent of Zodiac Control).

Next: Ending the Ekcolir Reality -the roots of European history- the Mosivite/Etruscan cultural boundary and Trysta's adventures in the late Mesolithic.

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Spectral Analysis

Assassination By Subtraction

About six months ago I became aware of a small cadre of experimental Interventionists: the Dead Widowers. The founding member of that group was apparently born into the Ekcolir Reality and brought over into our universe.

Writing under the name "John Doe", it did not take long for founder of the Dead Widowers to attract attention, particularly the attention of the tryp'At Overseers. Assassination by Subtraction is a fast-paced mystery/adventure story that does not shy away from providing details about the involvement of aliens in the death of President Lincoln.

The effort in 2014 to publish Assassination by Subtraction was an experiment aimed at learning the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Something in that story crossed the line and pushed the tryp'At into action: publication of Assassination by Subtraction was blocked.

Original artwork by Johannes Bruck
Published in the Ekcolir Reality

Beyond the mere content of Assassination by Subtraction is the hidden identity of its two authors. There are two strong authorial voices at work telling the story of Lincoln's assassination. It is easy to imagine that two writers had set out to mimic the writing styles of Jack Vance and Isaac Asimov and they simply used the pen names "John Doe" and "Saul Greek".

50 covers

The truth is more interesting. "John Doe" was born in the Ekcolir Reality as John Vance, twin brother of Jack. John and Jack both wrote science fiction stories, so it is no surprise that John Vance continued writing when he arrived here, in the Buld Reality, the universe as we know it.

The Atlantis Clones have been gradually educating me about the writing careers of Jack and John within the Ekcolir Reality, stimulating me to write a series of blog posts about their stories that exist in Deep Time (most recently).

Temporal Amplification

Original artwork by John Schoenherr
Published in the Ekcolir Reality

I'm still struggling to understand how it was possible for the same people to be present in each Reality of Earth's Reality Chain. Back when time travel was still possible, temporal momentum, as a fundamental property of Time, was one of the major influences on the shape of successive Realites. In some sense, the Sedronic Domain contains an "echo" or "copy" of every Reality that ever existed. Someone like Angela, who has control of the Bimanoid Interface, can search through the information content of the Sedronic Domain and reconstruct the timeline of events in past Realities.

Temporal Momentum also made possible Reality Viewing. In particular, Trysta and Grean were able to View possible new Realities and they selected the Buld Reality as the Final Reality. The fact of temporal momentum made it possible to identify the exact conditions of the Reality Change that could bring into existence the Buld Reality (our universe).

Published in the Ekcolir Reality
source

As a natural force, temporal momentum is quite weak. However, R. Gohrlay long ago created an Inertial Amplification system for Earth. 

Vance vs Asimov
The invention of science fiction as a literary genre began in the often-forgotten "Asimov Reality". The time-traveling Isaac Asimov took the place of John Campbell and mentored his younger self as a science fiction writer. Sadly, that Reality quickly resulted in a devastating nuclear war.

In the Ekcolir Reality, Grean arranged for Asimov's replicoid to travel back in time to the mid-20th century. Grean had conceived the idea of using science fiction as a way of introducing the people of Earth to the aliens who had created the human species. Asimov's replicoid began the process of sneaking stories about the hidden history of humanity past the Overseers, a process that I call "Experimental Interventionism": discovering what story content can pass as fiction while telling truths about reality.

Urbanites vs Institute

Published in the Ekcolir Reality
source

In the Ekcolir Reality, Asimov was a relentless promoter of what we can call the "Urbanite" view of Earth's future: human population expands, human-generated technology destroys Earth, some form of artificial life replaces humanity.

Gohrlay was appalled by such a future for humanity. R. Gohrlay had originally conceived an alternative future in which Asterothropes inherited Earth, but she could find no way to avoid damage to Earth's ecosystem. Then, the Trysta-Grean Pact formed around a new compromise position that would allow Earth to satisfy both the Huaoshy directive that Earth not be destroyed as a garden world and Gohrlay's desire that humans, not Prelands, inherit the Earth.

Published in the Ekcolir Reality
source

In the Buld Reality, Asimov's replicoid made use of Jack Vance as the champion of an alternative view of Earth's future, one in which human technological advances were modulated and Earth was able to avoid environmental catastrophe. Anney suggests that Vance was selected by R. Gohrlay as the only available force that could shift science fiction out of the pattern that Asimov had created and take Earth in the direction required for the Buld Reality. Anney adds, "In the end, even Asimov changed his ways and became more Vance-like."

The Spectrum of Science Fiction

Vance: transformations through time...
from the Historical Institute to the Institute

"Jack Vance is the best writer in science fiction . . . .  You will notice that I don’t say that he is the best writer of, but the best writer in science fiction..." -Jean Cox (source)

"My stories deal with the development of humanity in various environments." -Jack Vance (source)

Within the the literary genre of science fiction, Asimov can be seen as the writer who, as a trained scientist, established the parameters of "hard" science fiction. When Asimov stepped outside of his role as a science fiction writer he was most well known for his works of science popularization. In contrast, Vance has dedicated fans of both his fantasy and his science fiction stories and he was never comfortable being labeled simply as a science fiction writer.

"Is it conceivable that the Institute
wields more control over the human psyche
than we suspect?" - Jan Holberk Vaenz LXII

Asimov placed science fiction on a trajectory of imagined futures in which science would change everything, allowing the human species to replace itself with a new successor life form. Anney feels that we should view that sort of trans-humanistic vision of the future as a stimulus that drove Vance in another direction. If the human spirit is to survive and spread among the stars then what sorts of human institutions will make that possible? Vance invented the Institute, a social force for putting limits on science and technological advancement.

In the Exode trilogy, I simply imagine that the Institute was required for creation of the Buld Reality and I have fun imagining that it was Asimov's replicoid that had to make sure that Vance's invention was known to the Editor.

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Intergalactic Demons

Claustrophobia
As noted by Kat, for his novel The Palace of Love, Jack Vance created "the Mad Poet" Navarth. Navarth was reluctant to leave Earth, comparing himself to Antaeus and saying, "never may I detach my toe from Earth". During the flight through space to visit the Palace of Love on the planet Sogdian, poor Navarth, "simultaneously became afflicted with both claustrophobia and agoraphobia".

Asimov's fear of flying and enjoyment of small enclosed rooms seems at odds with his famous "Galactic Empire" and his science fiction journeys across vast interstellar distances. My own brain came equipped with a powerful system for generating fear of heights, so I know how difficult it is to overcome such "phobias". Recently a candidate gene has been identified that seems to be associated with claustrophobia.

I'm often thinking about brains and human memory processes while writing science fiction (most recently). Sometimes it is amusing when our all-too-faulty neuronal memory systems reconstruct reality for us. Keith described the Demon Princes as being "a group of five intergalactic criminals".

Vance's Demon Prince series is set within our galaxy, among a region of stars not too distant from Earth. I've long concerned myself with Asimov's apparent inability to extend his "Galactic Empire" saga beyond our galaxy. In Vance's fictional universe, might there be  "intergalactic" connections for the Demon Princes?

I've previously thought about writing a fan fiction sequel to The Book of Dreams. I must say...any story that does not involve life forms from beyond our galaxy inflicts me with a tingle of claustrophobia, so let's explore how to bring Vance's Demon Princes saga to the wider stage of intergalactic space.

Alice Wroke flirting
with Henry Lucas at
their Extant office

Intergalactic Demons
What if the Institute is a "front organization" for alien influences from beyond our galaxy? Maybe Alice's father and Treesong were initially working together to penetrate the Institute's Dexad. I imagine that alien forces slip their nanites into some humans such as Treesong. Suppose that Benjamine Wroke was experimenting with ways to take control of those alien nanites and turn Treesong into the tool of Interventionists. In the end, Treesong double-crossed Benjamin Wroke and murdered him.

When Kirth Gersen (in the role of Henry Lucas) first realizes that Alice is an associate of Tressong, he briefly contemplates the possibility that she is a wicked woman. Why else would she work with the "King of Thieves"? However, he soon learns that Treesong is forcing Alice to spy on Lucas and the Extant offices by using threats of violence against her father. Not knowing that her father is already dead, Alice infiltrates the Extant magazine headquarters and reports to Treesong what she can learn from Kirth.

Alice on the verandah at Gladen's Hotel

Eventually Kirth and Alice join forces to take revenge on Treesong. Kirth is already smitten by Alice and over dinner at her hotel on the evening of Gersen's return from space, she vows to never let him out of her sight again.

It is a puzzle for Kirth and Alice: how did Treesong rise to Institute rank 99? Just what advanced technologies might Treesong have at his command?

I've previously speculated that Treesong might be endowed with a nanite symbiont that could account for his "multiple personality" disorder.

In the Exode Trilogy, the Nereids make some advanced technology available to the Interventionists.

Alice, triumphantly
indispensable at
Blue Forest Camp
on Bethune Preserve

If I place Kirth Gersen and Alice Wroke in the Exodemic Fictional Universe then I have to contemplate which might be the most effective groups who are working to speed human technological advancement and counter the Institute's efforts to limit human cultural development.

Vance indicates that the IPCC does try to counter criminals like Treesong, but, as Gersen says, the IPCC is not very effective. Somewhere, hidden away in the many worlds of the growing Oikumene (or maybe Beyond) is there an Interventionist cabal that can turn the tide in the struggle against a mysterious alien force that would unleash criminal demons like Treesong upon humanity?

Moudervelt

Follow the Money
I recently came across some commentary on Vance that took note of how frequently the main characters in his stories have to deal with strangers who try to "extort an extra cent from whoever". Often it is more than just a "cent". A typical example comes in The Book of Dreams when Gersen, who is a billionaire, lands on the planet Moudervelt, the home world of Treesong. He is greeted by a spaceport official who tries to charge a 200 SVU landing fee. Gersen knowingly hands over just 5 SVU while commenting that "some public officers tend either to larceny or daydreaming".

Just down the road in Cloutie, Gersen needs a room for the night. At the Hotel Bon Ton an attempt is made to rent him a room for 83 SVU, but Gersen calmly asks to see the schedule of room rates and suddenly the price of a room drops to 5 SVU. A short time later, Gersen is out strolling through town and an attempt is made to sell him a map (the price is marked 25 centums) for two SVU. Gersen the billionaire calmly argues over the price of the map for the duration of half a page of the novel.

Back in the "golden age" of science fiction, Vance probably sold some of his stories for the painful price of one cent per word. Under such working conditions he figured that he had to turn out a million words a year in order to earn a living. It would not surprise me if Vance pointedly developed the habit of including in his stories little scenes in which haggling over prices not-very-subtly depicted the frugality of a rich character...and by extension, publishers.

Jerdian Chanseth in Skansel
Plaza, Sarjeuz, Dar Sai

I've been trying to imagine how Gersen might spend his money to help the Interventionist cause and defend humanity against an "evil" alien influence. While Gersen might well argue on the street over the cost of a 25 cent item, at other times he is willing to spend money without a qualm. Early in The Book of Dreams Gersen is out on the streets of Pontefract killing time before an appointment. He impulsively buys a set of mechanized chess playing puppets. During this time, playing the role of Henry Lucas, he resides at the upscale Penwipers Hotel, where every day he is dressed in elegant clothes by his valet, providing him with an excellent disguise (normally he wears plain spaceman's attire).

In The Face, the first evening he is in Twanish on the planet Methel, Gersen eats dinner at the Medallion Restaurant. He enjoys the Grand Repast featuring "Authentic Dishes in the Style of the Grand Masters". This meal costs about the equivalent of $300. Later, while contemplating a possible future life of frivolity and comfort in retirement with the charming Jerdian Chanseth, Gersen spends a million SVU to buy the fine house Moss Alrune in the exclusive Llalarkno district.

Drusilla III at Arodin's Temple

In all of the Demon Princes saga, Gersen seemed most comfortable spending money when in the presence of Navarth. In The Palace of Love, Gersen is out on the town for an evening with Navarth and Zan Zu. While searching for Viole Falushe they stop at the Hotel Prince Franz Ludwig for dinner and then they go bar hopping. Dinner, muscatel, champagne, krystallek, coffee and trifles of pastry at the Hotel Prince Franz Ludwig alone cost Gersen more than 200 SVU. When Navarth must throw a carefully crafted party to lure Falushe near, the cost is one million SVU.

At the end of the story, when Falushe has been eliminated and Gersen leaves Zan Zu and her clone sisters (Drusillas III and IV) with Navarth, he provides additional funds to Navarth for their care and rehabilitation.

In my imagined fan fiction sequel to The Book of Dreams, after visiting Terranova and learning that his mother is still alive and living at a hidden Interventionist base on Earth, Kirth and Alice recruit help from Navarth, using the "Mad Poet" and his antics as cover while Gersen penetrates a Interventionist enclave which is hidden in the mountains of the northern Iberian peninsula.

Alice extracting nanites

Finally Gersen's vast fortune becomes useful. The Interventionists help Gersen extract nanites from Treesong's corpse then use his wealth to develop the means to reprogram, control and replicate the nanites. Treesong's nanites developed a defect that caused his multiple personalities and that also makes them vulnerable to "hacking" and reprogramming.

Although Falushe's body is never recovered, Gersen is able to verify that there are also alien nanites in the bodies of Lens Larque, Attel Malagate and Kokor Hekkus. Gersen and Alice travel to Lambda Gruis III where they discover that the bodies of all Star Kings contain a nanorobotic symbiont. Long ago, the pek bioengineered Homo sapiens on the world "Ghnarumen".

That aliens are responsible for our species' origin becomes quite clear. Kirth and Alice learn that Interventionist agents secretly transplanted some of the engineered humans back to Earth. The pek still plan to replace humans with more advanced Star Kings that are still being evolved. Can the Interventionists successfully equip humans with nanites so they can defend themselves against the Star Kings?

almost heaven

Paladins Triumphant
This is my 250th post to this blog. It somehow seems fitting that I am here again indulging myself in the "fan fiction disease" of imagining a sequel to one of my favorite science fiction novels. Sorry about that, Jack!

Princess Gisseth

This blog has become a rather meandering exploration of the science fiction terrain that so fascinates me...

Why would aliens target "a shy brown-haired boy known as Howard Hardoah" growing up on a farm near Gladbetook, Maunish district of planet Moudervelt? In his youth, Howard was transformed and he imagined himself born of Princess Gisseth of Treesong Keep.

The eerie paladin Eia Panice.

What did Vance imagine was going on with the "paladins" who shared Howard Treesong's body? Mewness: There are long roads yet to be traveled and many an inn where I would take refuge.

The alien and eerie Eia Panice has eyes like pale fire. "Eia, as fearsome to enemies as death itself speaks little. His deeds tell their own tale and terror trembles in his wake."

Immir of the graces
(source)

Panice calls together the departing paladins and they topple Howard to his death. Cleadhoe: "The chair was solidly fixed! He could not have tumbled it alone!"

Gersen turned away, "Whatever has happened, it is enough for me." But later, he and Alice must extract the nanites from Howard's corpse and risk re-instantiating the mysterious paladins.

Kirth and Alice eventually realize that some of the "paladins" who haunted Treesong originated as non-human life forms. Maybe Panice, like the Nereids, originated in another galaxy.

Vance indicated that there was some kind of controlled breeding program in Maunish. I assume that program caused Howard's brain to be particularly suitable for hosting an alien nanorobotic symbiont. "Immir" was the intended symbiont for Howard, but something went wrong and multiple artificial life forms took up residence inside him.

2018 rumor: "Vince is currently writing and producing Jack Vance’s seminal five book science fiction series DEMON PRINCES for Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions, produced by Nick Wechsler and Carole Tomko." (source)
1958 - Vance's story "Parapsyche"

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