norman@lasspvax.UUCP (Norman Ramsey) (12/19/85)
Here is a brief summary of what I know about the Childe cycle. My sources of
information are some introductory material from a Doubleday triple (Three to
Dorsai!) and the 1979 Childe Cycle Status Report, which I have seen
elsewhere called 'out of date', though I don't know why.
The original plan of the Cycle was twelve books; six SF, three historical,
and three contemporary. Right now five of the SF books have been published,
and depending on who you ask, either one or two more or planned. In order
(chronological order of Dickson's universe), they are:
Necromancer
Tactics of Mistake
Dorsai!
Soldier, Ask Not
The Final Encyclopedia
Chantry Guild (planned????)
Childe (planned)
After finishing Childe (and also Chantry Guild?), DIckson plans to go back
and do the three histrocial novels, first one about a fictional late Moyen
Age/Early Renaissance warrior, Hawkwood, then one about Milton, and then one
about I forget who.
After that come the contemporary novels. I remember one is to be about a
military man about the time of WWII and the last about a woman in the 1980s.
Dickson claimed (in 1979) that after The Final Encyclopedia was published he
expected to publish a Childe Cycle novel about every other year. I don't
know whether he still plans that.
The Cycle as whole concerns itself with the evolution of humanity as a kind
of a racial organism, and in particular with the influence of pivotal
individuals on that history. Dickson's three archetypes are the Man of War,
the Man of Faith, and the Man of Philosophy. I personally have found most of
the series very nicely done but then I enjoy things that are as much about
civilizations as about individual people. I also like supermen stories,
which much of the Cycle is.
Someone coming to this for the first time might want to start with Tactics
of Mistake, which talks about the origins of the Dorsai people, who play an
important role in the Cycle, and who also supply the most important single
character, Donal Graeme, whose influence is very nearly pervasive.
Happy reading!
--
Norman Ramsey
ARPA: norman@lasspvax -- or -- norman%lasspvax@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
UUCP: {ihnp4,allegra,...}!cornell!lasspvax!normanliz@unirot.UUCP (Mamaliz ) (12/22/85)
In article <750@lasspvax.UUCP> norman@lasspvax.UUCP (Norman Ramsey) writes: > >After finishing Childe (and also Chantry Guild?), DIckson plans to go back >and do the three histrocial novels, first one about a fictional late Moyen >Age/Early Renaissance warrior, Hawkwood, then one about Milton, and then one >about I forget who. Sir John Hawkwood is very definitely NOT a fictional character. He was an English soldier from the Hundred Years War, who at the "conclusion" of the war went on to be the leader of a number of mercenary bands in Northern Italy. liz caip!unirot!liz