| UP (discussion topics) | TOP (Cherryh-homepage) |
message 0120

Parts of this message can be found in the following threads:
>From: nancy ott <ott@ansoft.com>
>Subject: Cherryhlist
>Date: Wed, 5 May 93 16:28:51 EDT

> >From: Lesley Grant 

> Thinking about the various series of Cherryh's books, it occurred to me that
> there isn't much religion in any of them.  

>       All that aside, what I want to know is - where's the religion in her
> Union/Alliance series? There appears to be absolutely none at all among the
> humans. Are Union/Alliance/Earth supposed to be populated totally by atheists
> and/or agnostics? Religion is alive and well among the aliens, what happened
> to the humans? And wouldn't it be interesting to see a Mahen mission to
> Earth....(Number One good faith! You pray, you not tortured by demons)
> 
>                               Lesley

I don't get the feeling that religion is completely absent from the
Union/Alliance series, just that it's not very important.  After all,
there are references to helldeck preachers handing out religious
tracts in "Heavy Time" and religious cults springing up over the
discovery of aliens (the Downers) in "Downbelow Station."  But
religion certainly doesn't seem to affect the lives of the characters
in her novels.  

I suppose that being settled largely by cynical former Eatern-block
scientific types gives Union a decidedly non-religious bent.  About
the only religious reference that Merchanters seem to make is to a
quasi-mystical relationship with "the Deep" (as in deep space).

Religions and religious groups don't appear to have political
influence, either -- at least in the case of Union and Alliance. As
for Earth .... judging from the situation in "Heavy Time" and
"Hellburner", things haven't changed *that* much from the present, so
ther's probably still a mixture of secular and religious influences.

BTW, I like the idea of Mahen missionaries coming to Earth.  But what
would really be interesting is Earth missionaries coming to the
Compact.  Just imagine how difficult it would be to explain, say, 
christianity to a Stsho or a Kif.  


> >From: Jo Jaquinta 
> 
>       I got involved with a friend putting together an Elite like
> game. Of course I was looking at it from the point of view of a
> Cherryh-like universe. That led onto old ideas I had for doing
> Cherryh role playing game stuff and I've been playing with ideas for
> ship design.

>       The first thing I sat down to think about was the relative
> technilogical level of the various races. Here's what I've come with
> so far:
>       Earth           0
>       Union           2
>       Alliance        1
>       Hani            1
>       Mahendosat      2
>       Kif             2
>       T'ca/Chi        4
>       Knnn            6
>       Sstsho          3

I'd rate Earth, Alliance and Union as:

Union:    2 (some stations/planets are 1)
Alliance: 1
Earth:    1 (can vary between 0 and 2)

Earth is much less homogeneous than Union or Alliance; however, I
imagine that most of Earth and the Belt would be at a tech level of 1.
Sol Station, Mars and parts of the wealthier nations would be closer
in technology to Union.  The less developed parts of earth would be
very low tech indeed.

Earth and Alliance seem to be equivalent in spaceship technology,
derived from Union's early advances in that area.  Union also has the
edge in areas like genetic engineering (such as azi), biochemistry
(such as rejuv) and social engineering, so I'd give them the higher
overall tech level.  However, some parts of Union may not be as
advanced.  Like Earth, the tech level would vary depending on where
you are located.

Earth and Union have the population and resources to engage in
research and development on a scale that Alliance just can't match.
Alliance also doesn't have much of an industrial base (at least
initially).  However, Earth is held back by political/psychological
attitudes that Union and Alliance just don't have.

I'd give the Hani a zero instead of a 1.  They didn't develop advanced
technology on their own; they obtained it from the Mahendosat and
haven't really advanced much from there.

- nancy

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
nancy ott      |  The master documents by not-documenting.
Ansoft Corp.   |  
Pittsburgh, PA |                - The Tao of Technical Writing