Tau Zero

[Attero Dominatus]

Currently I am reading Tau Zero by Poul Anderson.

The book takes place in post-nuclear-war future where Russia and the United States have all but destroyed each other and Sweden was chosen to overseen the disarmament of all the world's major nuclear arsenals and military forces, with Sweden becoming the head of a world government in the process (there are a few conversations between characters on how well-intentioned things like this lead to imperialism).

This same government happens to be building Bussard Ramjets and sending them to star systems with known planets in order to have the human race 'survive Ragnarok' (avoid extinction) in the words of a woman named Ingrid Lindgrin.

The book is about the crew of the ramjet Leonora Christine, on a routine mission to settle on a planet and begin populating and the first months of the voyage see characters doing ship and scientific work by day and having random partners by night (marriage is forbidden until they arrive at the destination).

The book focuses on two characters mainly, Charles Reymont who grew up in a poor but traditional family and has 'old' mores and Ingrid Lindgrin, who is the human relations specialist and has looser modern mores.

The sex scenes are not explicit, but they play and important role in the plot, along with the effects of isolation in space for several years (much longer than they originally planned).

Unfortunately the book has been out of print since 2000 and is somewhat of a collector's item (used copies going for as much as 40 dollars on Amazon). But you might find one at a used book store.

[Floyd Looney]

I don't like the mores but it sounds interesting anyway. A little like Tamara's Wilhite's "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell". They do a bit of the same thing, in order to spread out the gene pool. I guess in the story I won't write its like that too, although in my unwritten story the colony is also ruled by women. A Matriarchy

[Attero Dominatus]

Poul Anderson was no leftie. In fact he criticized the left for their double standard of ignoring the human rights violations of any country they wanted the United States to get along with (especially the Soviet Union).

Aside from a belief that both the Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate grievances against each other (when in fact the Palestinians just want to destroy Israel), he was on our side of the political fence. He was also against entities like the United Nations and anything else that could be used to form a one world government.

[Floyd Looney]

I never accused him of being a lefty, as a matter of fact Tamara Wilhite is a FReeper. (so there, lol). Heck, like I said even I had the same concept. In mine though, the colonists regress technology of course, meaning shorter lives on average and all that. Boys became wards of the Queen were raised barracks style and used mostly for labor etc. A girl would go to school but school ended at 12 or 13 (not nearly as much to learn obviously) and they would become assistants to mothers, soldier trainee's and other things for a couple of years.
Assistants could easily become sexual objects for the expectant mothers and new mothers too.

At around 15 the girls were expected to stat trying to have babies, 5 kids per mother is the goal in order to increase the population. 4 would become wards of the Queendom. The girls are expected to become pregnant by picking random men and taking them home until they were pregnant. Noone would know who was the father obviously since it could be a month or two until a pregnancy was obvious.

This is why women recieved free housing and a stipend, the men who labored paid heavy taxes for this. Men lived in barracks or low-rent apartments in segregated parts of town, but they had arcades, pubs and such available to them and it was not illegal for them to engage in most businesses. Boys were required to cover themselves but girls usually didn't even wear clothes until they became mothers, traditionally.

So the Queendom was similar in some ways to those other books and very different in other ways.

[Attero Dominatus]

I know you never made that accusation. I just did not think you heard about Poul Anderson, so I wanted to mention that he was on our side of the political fence.

And I think you should write this story concept. It would be interesting. A nice anti-feminism bent to it as well.

[Floyd Looney]

By the way Happy Thanksgiving.

As I have stated before the population levels help determine the level of technology and a small colony like in my story would start with very little. As a matter of fact the colonists had an accident and it left them with nearly nothing. A teenaged girl was the only person who rallied the survivors to even try to keep moving, basically the reason they became a Queendom. Although they had little more than mud huts at the time, she was soon made their queen.

I'm not sure I can write it. I do have a habit of not finishing stories too.

[Attero Dominatus]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

It sounds like an interesting story.

The only advice I can give is to put all your effort into one story. It can be hard if you have several ideas you like but you could find ways to put in ideas from the others into the one story. And keep your momentum up. That is type something into it each day, even if its a little.

[Floyd Looney]

Hey I am back from my brothers house!