Book Release Weekend

Dim Distant Stars, the third Jack Mack science fiction novel, will be officially released on Sunday, June 1 2025. Available at Arachis Press as print or free ebooks.

 

Islands

I think of the inhabited (by humans) universe of my Jack Mack novels as being like the Pacific before Europeans and all their technological advances arrived. Travel and trade passed among the scattered islands but they were too far-flung for anyone to rule over them. A king might occasionally unite an island or even a chain — as Kamehameha did in Hawaii — but anything more was impossible. The distances were just too great, the vessels too small.

So we have planetary systems, or small groups of them, more or less under one government, but often belonging to larger trading communities. The two largest mentioned in the novels are the Aiglean and Corvan associations, but there are smaller groups and many independent systems. All that was changing in Jack McFee’s time, hence the first widespread warfare between those trading groups.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that power would become more centralized eventually but advances in technology (as ever) hastened the process. For one, the advent of the Li Drive, the first interstellar jump drive that could work independently of human direction. This certainly increased both trade and exploration, as well as making warfare more feasible. Less important, though still a factor, was the development of the first truly practical pulse tube engines for normal travel through space (and elsewhere). Both these came along in the half-century before the birth of Jack and were changing the worlds in which he lived.

But ruling a galaxy-wide empire remained quite impractical, if not downright impossible. The strict size limit on interstellar ships definitely continued to play a role there, as did the random targeting of any jump into a system. What we do see is a general tightening of control, the trade communities becoming increasingly political and territorial. Some outlying groups, such as the Picans and the Ursans, come close to being pocket empires, engaging in outright annexations of some of their neighbors in the postwar chaos.

For the most part, the planetary systems remain relatively independent, even after the war, each going its own way. They remain connected by trade; that is inevitable but some systems are more engaged in this network of commerce than others. Yet there is a continuing push toward more centralization. I would suspect more wars, in time. Although the Scotian group is now officially neutral, it is likely to be drawn in, taking Jack with it.

I have attempted to include a variety of social, political, and economic systems for the many worlds of the Jack Mack novels. Some of that is a matter of the culture of those who settled there. Some is the result of economic forces. Humans, being imperfect, will never create a perfect system and are likely to continue to change and experiment. So Thule is essentially socialist and Scotia has — more or less — a market economy. That Thule was colonized by Scandinavians and Scotia largely (at first) by Canadians factors into this, but the challenges faced in both worlds played their roles. Scotia was a far friendlier environment and did not require the regimented approach to survival that Thule did.

Other worlds, of course, present a wide array of economic and political systems we might explore in sequels. Resnovae, for example, which is ruled by a human aristocracy with robot serfs. And beyond the handful of worlds humans know and inhabit? Who can say what might be out there on those unknown islands?

Dominic Flandry

Dominic Flandry, Poul Anderson’s secret agent of the far future Terran Empire, first appeared in 1951 in ‘Planet Stories.’ That puts him before James Bond, but the two arose from the same Cold War era and share many characteristics.

There is undoubtedly something of Flandry in my Jack McFee, protagonist of the three Jack Mack novels. As a teen, I read most of Anderson’s stories (there are quite a few) of him. Sure, there’s a bit of James Bond, too, but Jack is a much glibber and less serious sort than either, and more inclined to shoot off his mouth than his gun. One can find many examples of that type in literature, as well.

I could name, for example, Peter Whimsy or Simon Templar, except I had read neither when I first started with Jack. One might go to other science fiction authors, such as Vance or Zelazny, to find some of my inspirations. One could also look at Tom Jones for Jack’s relationship — or relationships — with women. The opposite sex likes him and he is rather too willing to reciprocate.

Yet remain detached. That is Jack McFee’s big flaw — every decent protagonist has one, you know. Without it, he would be something akin to a ‘Mary Sue,’ the character that is too competent to be true. He seeks that elusive connection to another, even while, perhaps, sabotaging it. At the end of the third Jack Mack novel, ‘Dim Distant Stars,’ he may have finally succeeded — or at least made a step in the proper direction.

I was just rereading that first Flandry story, ‘Tiger by the Tale.’ As most of Anderson’s work, it is written well enough to rise above the mediocrity of the average writer. It is really ‘science fantasy’ in the Burroughs vein. Definitely not ‘hard’ science fiction! Poul Anderson was really better at fantasy than SF, overall, and his best work (in my humble opinion, of course) often combines the two. He is also pretty much to thank (or blame) for creating the Chaos versus Order duality explored later by Moorcock and Zelazny and various lesser lights.

Some of the Dominic Flandry stories are available free from Project Gutenberg, as well as other Poul Anderson work. Maybe you’d like to take a look — but don’t forget my tales too! Available at Arachis Press in print or as free ebooks.