Soldier, Ask Not (Gordon R. Dickson)

Found a cool quote:

"Soldier, ask not, now or ever, where to war your banners go.
Anarch's Legions all surround us. Strike, and do not count the blow."

Not as long as the St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare (Henry V?), but still very cool quote.

Looked him up on Wikipedia. He wrote a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the '60's, '70's, '80's, and '90's. Besides a lot of solo books, he wrote 2 series from 9 to 15 books each. I have only read one of his books, about 40 years ago.

1. The Dragon Knight series. I just mention this because I have read The Dragon and the George, probably when it first came out and there were no other books in the series. I think it is a fantasy series that takes place in England.

2. The Childe Cycle. This is where the quote comes from. It is a 23rd century science fiction series. I mention it because I think he gets space life right in one respect (as I read the Wikipedia page.) I am always interested when I read a story that I think gets space life "right," as compared to Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

For example, in Niven's universe (The Mote in God's Eye, etc.) travel never gets past the light speed barrier, except by using wormholes. I think that is the way it will be in Heaven. We won't be travelling between Solar Systems, unless we want a 20 - 100 year vacation. I think we will be using wormholes, which will actually be 4th+ dimensional Angels transporting us from spot to spot. Anyway, we'll see how far off the mark I am (grin.)

Another way Niven gets it right, I think, is that when traveling in space, ships speed up half the way, creating one gravity. Then, they turn the ship 180 degrees and decelerate the other half of the way, which maintains their one gravity. (I also like the Mote books because there is an Arab guy who doesn't drink alcohol like a lot of the crew. So, he is a coffee expert and people are always going to his cabin to get good coffee, of which he always has a good supply.)

But, in this series of books, I think the author gets "trade" correct. Transporting anything between solar systems is expensive and it will always be cheaper to make it locally, on planet. In this series, interstellar trade is solely personal service contracts, whether it be from a free world (where each person can choose a contract) or a totalitarian world, where the government sells contracts of its people.

Mike
Ruminating From (halfway to) Nepal