tinkerdan
∞<Q-Satis
A Matter of Honor (A Terran Empire Novel) by Ann Wilson
This novel proved to be a pleasant surprise. I was searching for another book on the Gutenberg site when I happened across this and downloaded it. It sat for a while mainly because I had never heard of Ann Wilson who writes science fiction. Web searches yielded more stories in the Terran Empire and the best guess that Ann published these somewhere around 1992 but I can't verify that yet and there is a lot of sketchy information that suggest that the dates may not be precise. Ann does have a web site and it looks as though the last time it was updated was in 2003 and it is mostly a repository for her world-building. Whatever is going on with the author; her work all seems to have gone into creative commons.
All that aside, although there are a few things that seemed rough about her writing style, I found that her command of storytelling was quite good. I enjoyed this novel despite the fact that I felt in some places specific threads were started and then just left while some character conflict were treated in the same manner and this novel could easily have been enriched and enlarged to include those. The good news is that without those the story was still complete and well told. It just could have been better, which means this author has or had a lot of potential beyond the evident talent.
The story itself is a tragedy and it only takes a short ride into the action to begin to see the breadcrumbs indicating this. It's also a perfect fit for the Star Wars and the Star Trek franchises. If I were more certain of the dates I'd add that it contains elements reminiscent of Babylon 5. but I believe the first of that series hit us around 1994. Much of the tech and philosophy in the story parallels both Star Trek and Star Wars.
The story starts with Thark, the High Adept of the White Order, cursing his predecessor Chear for having affiliated with the Terran Empire, because it has set the stage for the loss of his most promising student Corina Losinj who is either dead now or soon to be, because of the UN-Talented humans and their interfering Empire in his precious Irschcha.
We learn this and a whole lot more in a couple of pages. They have space craft and it has hyper-drive and Thark is a pilot and his status is such that he will obtain quick clearance although we also see reflection of his frustration in that the Imperial Navy is the one agency that could bump him from that priority. We learn that Irschchan wear kilts, different colors for different ranks. And we learn that the ship has been waiting for an upcoming rendezvous with other members of something called the Crusade and that he is having to rush his schedule because of whatever it is that has happened.
All of that information is trickled to the reader as Thark makes his way to the Prowler and is welcomed aboard and prepares for takeoff and then prepares to go into hyperspace and once there he affords himself the luxury of wondering if he could have done something different.
Now Ann Wilson takes the reader into a frame device to tell the back-story in a flashback.
In the flashback not that long ago Thark was preparing to work with his newest and strongest pupil. The Irschchan have esper talent some forms of Telepathy and Telekineses with mind block and shield and attacks that can damage the mind, all things that no Irschchan has ever seen the Terrans do. Corina is a late bloomer and for that it is the beginning of what will be the problem in that when first tested she had no indication of ability so it was acceptable for her to school with the Imperials and when at such a late age she showed signs it was imperative that she be removed from that influence.
Thark is greatly impressed with the strength of Corina's ability and intends today to inform her that she is ready for full initiation and training. We also learn that Corina lacks confidence and that is another thing that Thark intends to work on but as he discusses this with her he starts to envision her role as a fully trained talent and the part she would play with the Crusade and he unfortunately does not shield himself well and her great ability enables her to catch his thoughts. When she asks about the Crusade he is evasive which peaks her interest until she can't contain herself. He soon slips up and she gets another look.
We learn more interesting stuff in these same four pages. The Irschchan have fur and an earlier reference to ears in the first two pages now makes the reader see that perhaps these are bipeds with animal characteristics and that they purr might suggest catlike. There is enough difference in their race that Thark considers the Empire, its Emperor and his Rangers to be inferior. The Crusade means to overthrow the Empire and take rule away from the inferior humans. Corina has been trained by the Empire and so she has mixed loyalties and this revelation means she will have to make a choice. The idea of rebellion so shocks her she has to side with the Empire and there is no way to hide that from her teacher and though he would not kill her on his property she is certain he will eventually have her killed.
Up to this point I was not sure who the main character of this story was but as soon as I realize the unbending structure of the Irschchan culture and it's strict codes I realized that this had to be Corina's story. She has to escape death long enough to seek out the Terrans and to reveal the plot of the Crusade. At the same time Thark is certain that his people will kill her before she gets far and he heads off to the Prowler. I did not like Thark from this point onward-he's too much of a bigoted hair trigger.
They have a discussion before she flees where she pleads for the Empire and he reveals his racist view that only those with Talent should rule and that though the Empire found them with it's superior technology and even though the Rangers do demonstrate superior strength most of the time Thark feels that the Irschchan are much stronger for the talent. He also speaks of his disgust that although many Irschchan are allowed to be involved in the smaller things within the empire there are none in vital positions such as the Rangers and that this rebellion will put the Irschchan where they belong.
She flees and she does manage to escape to inform and help the Empire with this problem and for that she is amply rewarded and all of this sets the stage for the enormous tragedy that Thark and his Crusade are heading into.
Ann Wilson packs this into the first ten percent of the story. And very little if any is in noticeable info-dumps, but rather a trickle of information shown throughout the interaction between Corina and Thark.
As I mentioned Corina will see other conflicts on the other side in the form of equally prejudiced characters in the human sector. Some of that keeps the tension going and I would have liked to see more developed of that. There is at least one moment where there is a potential for romance that is passed by. I have to wonder from another posted review of one of her later works of the Terran Empire if in fact Ann Wilson might have a specific personal religious bent and if that is true if maybe that might have changed what she could have developed at that point. Either way it is only a carrot that remains dangling in front of the reader and really doesn't change the story dramatically and does not minimize the tragedy.
This is great SFF with great characters though not a strong piece for the people who like the science to be Simon Pure. I'm definitely going to read the other eleven short stories and novella and novels that are there and probably continue to wonder what happened to Ann Wilson.
If anyone knows perhaps they can tell me.
TinkerDan (Dan the Tinkerer.)
This novel proved to be a pleasant surprise. I was searching for another book on the Gutenberg site when I happened across this and downloaded it. It sat for a while mainly because I had never heard of Ann Wilson who writes science fiction. Web searches yielded more stories in the Terran Empire and the best guess that Ann published these somewhere around 1992 but I can't verify that yet and there is a lot of sketchy information that suggest that the dates may not be precise. Ann does have a web site and it looks as though the last time it was updated was in 2003 and it is mostly a repository for her world-building. Whatever is going on with the author; her work all seems to have gone into creative commons.
All that aside, although there are a few things that seemed rough about her writing style, I found that her command of storytelling was quite good. I enjoyed this novel despite the fact that I felt in some places specific threads were started and then just left while some character conflict were treated in the same manner and this novel could easily have been enriched and enlarged to include those. The good news is that without those the story was still complete and well told. It just could have been better, which means this author has or had a lot of potential beyond the evident talent.
The story itself is a tragedy and it only takes a short ride into the action to begin to see the breadcrumbs indicating this. It's also a perfect fit for the Star Wars and the Star Trek franchises. If I were more certain of the dates I'd add that it contains elements reminiscent of Babylon 5. but I believe the first of that series hit us around 1994. Much of the tech and philosophy in the story parallels both Star Trek and Star Wars.
The story starts with Thark, the High Adept of the White Order, cursing his predecessor Chear for having affiliated with the Terran Empire, because it has set the stage for the loss of his most promising student Corina Losinj who is either dead now or soon to be, because of the UN-Talented humans and their interfering Empire in his precious Irschcha.
We learn this and a whole lot more in a couple of pages. They have space craft and it has hyper-drive and Thark is a pilot and his status is such that he will obtain quick clearance although we also see reflection of his frustration in that the Imperial Navy is the one agency that could bump him from that priority. We learn that Irschchan wear kilts, different colors for different ranks. And we learn that the ship has been waiting for an upcoming rendezvous with other members of something called the Crusade and that he is having to rush his schedule because of whatever it is that has happened.
All of that information is trickled to the reader as Thark makes his way to the Prowler and is welcomed aboard and prepares for takeoff and then prepares to go into hyperspace and once there he affords himself the luxury of wondering if he could have done something different.
Now Ann Wilson takes the reader into a frame device to tell the back-story in a flashback.
In the flashback not that long ago Thark was preparing to work with his newest and strongest pupil. The Irschchan have esper talent some forms of Telepathy and Telekineses with mind block and shield and attacks that can damage the mind, all things that no Irschchan has ever seen the Terrans do. Corina is a late bloomer and for that it is the beginning of what will be the problem in that when first tested she had no indication of ability so it was acceptable for her to school with the Imperials and when at such a late age she showed signs it was imperative that she be removed from that influence.
Thark is greatly impressed with the strength of Corina's ability and intends today to inform her that she is ready for full initiation and training. We also learn that Corina lacks confidence and that is another thing that Thark intends to work on but as he discusses this with her he starts to envision her role as a fully trained talent and the part she would play with the Crusade and he unfortunately does not shield himself well and her great ability enables her to catch his thoughts. When she asks about the Crusade he is evasive which peaks her interest until she can't contain herself. He soon slips up and she gets another look.
We learn more interesting stuff in these same four pages. The Irschchan have fur and an earlier reference to ears in the first two pages now makes the reader see that perhaps these are bipeds with animal characteristics and that they purr might suggest catlike. There is enough difference in their race that Thark considers the Empire, its Emperor and his Rangers to be inferior. The Crusade means to overthrow the Empire and take rule away from the inferior humans. Corina has been trained by the Empire and so she has mixed loyalties and this revelation means she will have to make a choice. The idea of rebellion so shocks her she has to side with the Empire and there is no way to hide that from her teacher and though he would not kill her on his property she is certain he will eventually have her killed.
Up to this point I was not sure who the main character of this story was but as soon as I realize the unbending structure of the Irschchan culture and it's strict codes I realized that this had to be Corina's story. She has to escape death long enough to seek out the Terrans and to reveal the plot of the Crusade. At the same time Thark is certain that his people will kill her before she gets far and he heads off to the Prowler. I did not like Thark from this point onward-he's too much of a bigoted hair trigger.
They have a discussion before she flees where she pleads for the Empire and he reveals his racist view that only those with Talent should rule and that though the Empire found them with it's superior technology and even though the Rangers do demonstrate superior strength most of the time Thark feels that the Irschchan are much stronger for the talent. He also speaks of his disgust that although many Irschchan are allowed to be involved in the smaller things within the empire there are none in vital positions such as the Rangers and that this rebellion will put the Irschchan where they belong.
She flees and she does manage to escape to inform and help the Empire with this problem and for that she is amply rewarded and all of this sets the stage for the enormous tragedy that Thark and his Crusade are heading into.
Ann Wilson packs this into the first ten percent of the story. And very little if any is in noticeable info-dumps, but rather a trickle of information shown throughout the interaction between Corina and Thark.
As I mentioned Corina will see other conflicts on the other side in the form of equally prejudiced characters in the human sector. Some of that keeps the tension going and I would have liked to see more developed of that. There is at least one moment where there is a potential for romance that is passed by. I have to wonder from another posted review of one of her later works of the Terran Empire if in fact Ann Wilson might have a specific personal religious bent and if that is true if maybe that might have changed what she could have developed at that point. Either way it is only a carrot that remains dangling in front of the reader and really doesn't change the story dramatically and does not minimize the tragedy.
This is great SFF with great characters though not a strong piece for the people who like the science to be Simon Pure. I'm definitely going to read the other eleven short stories and novella and novels that are there and probably continue to wonder what happened to Ann Wilson.
If anyone knows perhaps they can tell me.
TinkerDan (Dan the Tinkerer.)
