MAGGI PICAYUNE

Today, I will pick up where I left off with novel number two…

The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle was initially deceptive thanks to its Boris Vallejo cover. Yet it became the novel to aid my understanding of Traveller by teaching me all about the moral gray. With D&D and popular Sci-Fi, who’s Good or Evil happen to be pretty obvious: The Rebels v. The Empire, Kirk v. Khan, Elves v. Orcs, etc. The Mercenary’s protagonist Colonel Falkenberg also reflects the author’s elitist, conservative and backward politics in my opinion; aka Plato and Alexander Hamilton are Pournelle’s patron saints. I’ll try to be concise so pardon the broad strokes with the plot.

In the near future (our recent past), interstellar travel is discovered  around the 1990s and humanity colonizes numerous planets in the first half of the 21st Century. The Seventies’ existential crisis, Overpopulation, is solved! Nope. Pournelle was an apostle of Heinlein so the West devolved into two social classes due to socialism; Citizens and Taxpayers. I forgot to mention, Pournelle was a blatant racist as Citizens are mostly poor, uneducated, non-Whites or idealistic Lefties. Citizens mooch and get stoned. Taxpayers are the middle class or higher (aka White) footing the bill. Ergo, some Taxpayers settled new colonies to escape Earth’s malaise. But the incompetent “world government” (an oversimplification) decides to relocate Citizens to these colonies. After several decades, the Citizens outnumber the Taxpayers on worlds like Hadley while remaining deadbeats. Falkenberg’s mercenary unit is contracted by Hadley’s original settlers to stop a Citizen takeover or else the colony will collapse, leading to barbarism…or what dildo Republicans say about San Francisco.

Does Falkenberg save the day by negotiating a peaceful compromise like Captain Kirk? Hell no! His forces attack a Citizens political rally held in a stadium, murdering hundreds just like the famous stair sequence from Battleship Potemkin. With key Citizens leaders executed, the survivors will now do what they’re told by their betters! Be involuntarily forced out of the urban centers to go work at the Taxpayers’ farms, mines and factories! Pournelle predicted a Faux News and MAGAt wet dream! Nevermind this is what Pol Pot did in Cambodia, killing about 25% of the country’s population before Vietnam intervened.

In the second half (Mercenary is two shorts from the early Seventies), Colonel Falkenberg assists the New Washington colony as they’ve been invaded by the nearby planet Franklin. Again, does Falkenberg stop the fighting with non-violent means. No, he transforms into a bigger dick. He does expel the Franklin occupiers enough to get a cease fire and lucks out on a “world government” starship showing up. The starship’s commander orders an end to all hostilities and everyone must go back to their planet of origin. Falkenberg cunningly got ownership of half of New Washington’s resources in exchange for pay and land grants for his troops, who are loyal only to him. Ergo, they get to stay as they’re now residents of New Washington. The story ends with him saying (paraphrased), “I think the people are ready for monarchy again.” Yeah, he made himself the planet’s de facto dictator. It was his plan all along, as Earth is heading toward barbarism and self-destruction.

How does this coincide with playing Traveller. Many adventures published by GDW didn’t involve rescuing princesses or defeating evil pirates. Instead, the players could be hired to conduct a burglary, be pirates/smugglers or join a mercenary company like Falkenberg’s to keep down a local insurgency. On the latter, odds are the players are helping a corrupt government and corporation rape the natives’ natural resources with the Imperium’s OK.

Mercenary‘s epilog wasn’t all negative. It did encourage me to read the core novel it was derived from, The Mote in God’s Eye which warned us that first contact may put humanity in touch with aliens who are a bigger danger to the galaxy than we ever could be.

That’s part two, next up will be Dorsai. A more upbeat Space Opera by Gordon R Dickson.

Yikes! June is almost over and I need to explain why this month’s header is three random paperback Sci-Fi novels!

Forty years ago, a co-worker gave these to my Dad who then gave them to me. I figure the co-worker heard I was a nerd. Being only 14 going on 15, I didn’t have any money so I was grateful while confused by the covers, titles and two authors. Until then, the only Sci-Fi I had read (outside of school) was based upon pop culture, aka Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. I was also getting into the Sci-Fi role-playing game Traveller which so far had been pretty disappointing. What kind of far future was this D&D-like game?

• Laser guns suck!
• It takes a week to travel at least a parsec!
• Why does your character have to be “old”?

The list went on given how an overwhelming majority of Gamers cut their teeth on D&D and Star Wars or Star Trek were what most of my generation loved or understood when it came to Sci-Fi.

It’s a good thing I received this trio by then. We later moved from the Sugar Land area to the Gulf Freeway section of Houston and out of cruelty, my parents decided not get cable to express their hatred for MTV; they claimed we were “poor.” It didn’t matter, we spent all of July in Central IL and these books kept me sane due to Grandma’s house evolving into a boring place thanks to my transformation into a teenager.

I started with The End of the Matter because it was written by Alan Dean Foster. In 1983, you would easily recognize his name. He wrote the novelizations for Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (the Star Wars sequel if it flopped), Star Trek: the Motion Picture, Star Trek: the Animated Adventures, The Black Hole, Alien and Outland. I figure Matter was a safe bet.

What’s it about? I think it’s the fourth novel in Foster’s own Humanx Commonwealth setting focusing on the hero Flinx and his pet mini-dragon Pip. Knowing what happened in the previous three stories would’ve aided me on Flinx’s background alongside his two other friends who came to his rescue. Matter was a big deal for being crossover too. Another character, September Skua, is from a different book in the same setting called Icerigger; he’s a tough, soldier-of-fortune type. Flinx, Pip, September and allies all have to protect some weird creature from the Humanx Commonwealth’s enemies, the lizard-esque AAnn and some space assassins. Foster wrote a solid book as always. The pacing was great, the characters are plausible and it doesn’t drown in technobabble. He remains the go-to guy for novelizations 40 years later!

That’s part one, next up will be The Mercenary. It was my introduction to Larry Niven’s frequent collaborator Jerry Pournelle.