Damm this book opens a ton of questions i haden’t considered 🙂 For instance, where precisely did the United Sentients Assembly originate? Could be a nice twist for them to be the spiritual descendants of some of the droid assemblymen from before the mechanozide – we know that the droid assemblymen were escorted to the droid plantations/ factories, at least according to official history, but we also know that there were underground railroads (that still persists to this day despite the confederations neo-nazi stance against all mechanized lifeforms with their propaganda having long since penetrated all non-droid societies at all levels) and probably even open resistance to such extreme policies at least at first (its pretty clear that parts of the pro-slavery league fought back against the mechanozide, but were eventually beaten. Btw, its pretty messed up that the slavers are the “good guys” aka the less terrible faction, shows how messed up the confederation really is and the empire is supposedly even worse). That should give them a chance to escape, and with a bit of preparation, built up a small mobile base of their own, that in time could have grown into the modern USA.
I like it, though i do wonder if the pro-slavery league were actually pro-slavery or just wanted to preserve the droids until they could bring them back into confederation society – an admirable goal, even if their means of doing so were reprehensible. Of course, they were ultimately defeated in the wars that followed, so we may never know.
I do feel like the empire and the confederation are currently treating nonhumans like pre – and during ww2-nazi germany treated the jews, with the confederation banishing them beyond the rim of space, being somewhat similar to pre-war Hitlers stated desire to banish the jews to an island in the carribean ocean, and the empire as during-war hitler who directly murdered them, similar to how the empire murders most non-humans and genies they catch on the rim (i assume the empire itself has long since been cleansed) and of course both parties seem to be extremely hostile to droids. Only the empire has so far been seen to deal with aliens, who they seem to be exterminating as well, but the confederation probably wouldn’t treat them all that well, at least not once the novelty of “first contact” wears off. Of course after that point they may get to act the proverbial dancing bear so thats something,
ok was i the only one who didnt understand this or is there something i am just over seeing:
why would davenport ordering a bunch or warships hurt capria?
Will it hurt Capria? What happens if he say, defaults on the later half of the payment? Who of Jasons enemies could potentially pick up the bill for the remainder of such a building project? King James of Capria perhaps. That would be the simplest strategy and probably too obvious, but it would allow the admiral to act indirectly against Jason by aiding his enemy.
Even if he doesnt default on the remainder of the payment, he could potentially strengthen the position of one of Jasons greatest enemies who has already built up a fairly large fleet with the newest spine-based tech (probably somewhat better than the older caprian models, the admiral called them second class which is actually really good comparatively speaking, after all the spine is a backwater, they cant really build anything the empire would consider first class, they just dont have the knowhow to build the facilities to build the ships. Jason has the tech but most of his facilities are geared towards repairing old ships and producing replacement parts, not building new ships, with the clover II being the only major exception) – we know Capria managed to build another 8 battleships plus a lot of heavy cruisers – with a massive cash infusion (by caprian standards, could be pocket change for the emperial admiral), to help them build up their military capacity even faster.
At the moment Jason is isolated politically with a minimal skilled population most of whom are already engaged in the military and little industry to his name at least as far as the admiral knows, meaning he won’t grow that much stronger even after he restores most of the derilicts. King James has no such limitations, being restricted only by the willingness of his people to work for him. With the threat of the worst, most dreadful montagne of them all hanging over their heads the people of Capria are probably more than willing to make great sacrifices to keep the Tyrant Of Cold Space off the throne, even if it means economic hardship as they build up fleets capable of fighting back. Perhaps even take the fight to the tyrant himself 🙂
One of the things i expect Jason to have to deal with in the next book is the depletion of his manpower, as people return to their worlds of origins. It won’t be all of them, but i think as much as a quarter has been mentioned for the fleet, and im uncertain if that number includes those working at the fleet bases. Even if it doesn’t, that places a severe restriction on what Jason can do, for instance getting a bunch of ships repaired isn’t that usefull if most of the ones he has have already been cut back to minimal crews, backed up perhaps by willing but unskilled tractoans (being a lancer is one thing, but more technically demanding jobs require a greater degree of technological understanding).
6 comments
Rene Christensen - June 10, 2018 11:28 pm
Damm this book opens a ton of questions i haden’t considered 🙂 For instance, where precisely did the United Sentients Assembly originate? Could be a nice twist for them to be the spiritual descendants of some of the droid assemblymen from before the mechanozide – we know that the droid assemblymen were escorted to the droid plantations/ factories, at least according to official history, but we also know that there were underground railroads (that still persists to this day despite the confederations neo-nazi stance against all mechanized lifeforms with their propaganda having long since penetrated all non-droid societies at all levels) and probably even open resistance to such extreme policies at least at first (its pretty clear that parts of the pro-slavery league fought back against the mechanozide, but were eventually beaten. Btw, its pretty messed up that the slavers are the “good guys” aka the less terrible faction, shows how messed up the confederation really is and the empire is supposedly even worse). That should give them a chance to escape, and with a bit of preparation, built up a small mobile base of their own, that in time could have grown into the modern USA.
Joshua Wachter - June 11, 2018 2:52 am
Pretty twisted eh? Genocidal abolitionists versus the profit driven machine run factories.
The Deposed King
Rene Christensen - June 13, 2018 5:13 pm
I like it, though i do wonder if the pro-slavery league were actually pro-slavery or just wanted to preserve the droids until they could bring them back into confederation society – an admirable goal, even if their means of doing so were reprehensible. Of course, they were ultimately defeated in the wars that followed, so we may never know.
I do feel like the empire and the confederation are currently treating nonhumans like pre – and during ww2-nazi germany treated the jews, with the confederation banishing them beyond the rim of space, being somewhat similar to pre-war Hitlers stated desire to banish the jews to an island in the carribean ocean, and the empire as during-war hitler who directly murdered them, similar to how the empire murders most non-humans and genies they catch on the rim (i assume the empire itself has long since been cleansed) and of course both parties seem to be extremely hostile to droids. Only the empire has so far been seen to deal with aliens, who they seem to be exterminating as well, but the confederation probably wouldn’t treat them all that well, at least not once the novelty of “first contact” wears off. Of course after that point they may get to act the proverbial dancing bear so thats something,
cookiehunter - June 13, 2018 12:24 pm
ok was i the only one who didnt understand this or is there something i am just over seeing:
why would davenport ordering a bunch or warships hurt capria?
Rene Christensen - June 13, 2018 4:55 pm
Will it hurt Capria? What happens if he say, defaults on the later half of the payment? Who of Jasons enemies could potentially pick up the bill for the remainder of such a building project? King James of Capria perhaps. That would be the simplest strategy and probably too obvious, but it would allow the admiral to act indirectly against Jason by aiding his enemy.
Even if he doesnt default on the remainder of the payment, he could potentially strengthen the position of one of Jasons greatest enemies who has already built up a fairly large fleet with the newest spine-based tech (probably somewhat better than the older caprian models, the admiral called them second class which is actually really good comparatively speaking, after all the spine is a backwater, they cant really build anything the empire would consider first class, they just dont have the knowhow to build the facilities to build the ships. Jason has the tech but most of his facilities are geared towards repairing old ships and producing replacement parts, not building new ships, with the clover II being the only major exception) – we know Capria managed to build another 8 battleships plus a lot of heavy cruisers – with a massive cash infusion (by caprian standards, could be pocket change for the emperial admiral), to help them build up their military capacity even faster.
At the moment Jason is isolated politically with a minimal skilled population most of whom are already engaged in the military and little industry to his name at least as far as the admiral knows, meaning he won’t grow that much stronger even after he restores most of the derilicts. King James has no such limitations, being restricted only by the willingness of his people to work for him. With the threat of the worst, most dreadful montagne of them all hanging over their heads the people of Capria are probably more than willing to make great sacrifices to keep the Tyrant Of Cold Space off the throne, even if it means economic hardship as they build up fleets capable of fighting back. Perhaps even take the fight to the tyrant himself 🙂
One of the things i expect Jason to have to deal with in the next book is the depletion of his manpower, as people return to their worlds of origins. It won’t be all of them, but i think as much as a quarter has been mentioned for the fleet, and im uncertain if that number includes those working at the fleet bases. Even if it doesn’t, that places a severe restriction on what Jason can do, for instance getting a bunch of ships repaired isn’t that usefull if most of the ones he has have already been cut back to minimal crews, backed up perhaps by willing but unskilled tractoans (being a lancer is one thing, but more technically demanding jobs require a greater degree of technological understanding).
Joshua Wachter - June 14, 2018 6:07 pm
You’re on track for so many things 🙂