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CoDominium is a series of future history novels written by American writer Jerry Pournelle, along with several co-authors, primarily Larry Niven.
The CoDominium (CD) is a political alliance and union between the United States and the Soviet Union in Pournelle's fictional history. Formed to maintain planetary stability, the CD becomes a de facto planetary government and later an interstellar empire, though it halts scientific and political evolution. The U.S. during the CD era is a welfare state with distinct social classes: Citizens and Taxpayers. The empire is organized by sectors, ruled by a Viceroy, and governed by various ministries.
Colonies in the CoDominium are established on habitable planets, founded by various groups such as ethnic minorities, religious groups, and businesses. Elite colonies have advanced technology and fleets, allowing them some independence from the CD. The Outies, systems that retained enough technology to pose a threat, serve as a constant challenge for the Imperial Navy. Jennifer R. Pournelle's novel Outies is a sequel that explores themes of alienation and the impact of biology on destiny.
Series
edit| Title | Publication date | Author(s) | Type | Series | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Peace With Honor" | 1971 (May) | Jerry Pournelle | short story | Falkenberg series | later incorporated into The Mercenary |
| "His Truth Goes Marching On" | 1971 (September) | Jerry Pournelle | short story | Falkenberg Series | later incorporated into Prince of Mercenaries |
| A Spaceship for the King | 1971 (December), 1972 (January and February) | Jerry Pournelle | novel (serial) | Moties series | later expanded into King David's Spaceship |
| "He Fell into a Dark Hole" | 1973 | Jerry Pournelle | short story | CoDominium series | collected in There Will Be War, Vol. 5 and The Best of Jerry Pournelle |
| Sword and Scepter | 1973 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | Falkenberg series | later incorporated into The Mercenary |
| The Mote in God's Eye | 1974 | Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | novel | Moties series | [1][2][3][4] |
| "Motelight" | 1976 | Larry Niven | short story | Moties series | prologue to The Mote in God's Eye |
| Birth of Fire | 1976 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | CoDominium series | |
| West of Honor | 1976 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | Falkenberg series | later incorporated into Falkenberg's Legion |
| The Mercenary | 1977 (February) | Jerry Pournelle | novel (fix-up) | Falkenberg series | later incorporated into Falkenberg's Legion |
| "Silent Leges" | 1977 | Jerry Pournelle | short story | Falkenberg series | later incorporated into Prince of Mercenaries |
| High Justice | 1977 (May) | Jerry Pournelle | anthology | CoDominium series | collected in Exile—and Glory |
| Exiles to Glory | 1978 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | CoDominium series | collected in Exile—and Glory |
| King David's Spaceship | 1980 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | Moties series | expanded from A Spaceship for the King[5][6] |
| "Reflex" | 1982 | Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | short story | Moties series | The cut first chapter of The Mote in God's Eye; collected in There Will Be War, Vol. 1, Infinite Stars, and The Best of Jerry Pournelle |
| "In Memoriam: Howard Grote Littlemead" | 1984 | Larry Niven | poem | Moties series | rewrite of "Motelight" |
| War World, Vol 1: The Burning Eye | 1988 | various | anthology | War World series | |
| Prince of Mercenaries | 1989 | Jerry Pournelle | novel | Falkenberg series | collected in The Prince |
| Falkenberg's Legion | 1990 | Jerry Pournelle | novel (fix-up) | Falkenberg series | a compilation of West of Honor and The Mercenary; collected in The Prince |
| War World, Vol 2: Death's Head Rebellion | 1990 | various | anthology | War World series | |
| Go Tell the Spartans | 1991 | S. M. Stirling and Jerry Pournelle | novel | Falkenberg series | collected in The Prince |
| War World, Vol 3: Sauron Dominion | 1991 | various | anthology | War World series | |
| CoDominium: Revolt on WarWorld | 1992 (July) | various | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: Blood Feuds | 1992 (December) | various | novel | War World series | |
| The Gripping Hand | 1993 (January) | Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | novel | Moties series | also titled The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye |
| Prince of Sparta | 1993 (March) | S. M. Stirling and Jerry Pournelle | novel | Falkenberg series | collected in The Prince |
| Exiles to Glory: Revised Edition | 1993 (December) | Jerry Pournelle | novel | CoDominium series | revised edition of Exiles to Glory |
| War World: Blood Vengeance | 1994 (January) | various | novel | War World series | |
| War World, Vol 4: Invasion | 1994 (August) | various | anthology | War World series | |
| The Prince | 2002 | S.M. Stirling and Jerry Pournelle | omnibus | Falkenberg series | a compilation of Prince of Mercenaries, Falkenberg's Legion, Go Tell the Spartans, Prince of Sparta, and exclusive bonus content |
| War World: The Battle of Sauron | 2007 | John F. Carr and Don Hawthorne | novel | War World series | an expanded version was printed in ebook form in 2013 |
| Exile—and Glory | 2008 | Jerry Pournelle | omnibus | CoDominium series | a compilation of High Justice and Exiles to Glory |
| Outies | 2010 (April) | J.R. Pournelle | novel | Moties series | |
| War World: Discovery | 2010 (August) | various | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: Takeover | 2011 | various | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: Jihad! | 2012 | John F. Carr | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: The Lidless Eye | 2013 (January) | John F. Carr and Don Hawthorne | novel | War World series | |
| War World: The Battle of Sauron – 2nd Edition | 2013 (February) | John F. Carr and Don Hawthorn | novel (reissued with new material) | War World series | expanded ebook version of War World: The Battle of Sauron |
| War World: Cyborg Revolt | 2013 (August) | John F. Carr and Don Hawthorne | novel | War World series | |
| War World, Vol 1: The Burning Eye – 2nd Edition | 2015 | various | anthology (reissued with new material) | War World series | |
| War World: The Patriotic Wars | 2017 | various (edited by John F. Carr) | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: Falkenberg’s Regiment | 2018 | John F. Carr | novel | War World series | |
| War World: The Fall of the CoDominium | 2019 | various (edited by John F. Carr) | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: Andromeda Flight | 2021 | Doug McElwain (edited by John F. Carr) | novel | War World series | |
| War World: Road Warriors | 2022 | various (edited by John F. Carr) | anthology | War World series | |
| War World: The Falkenberg Protectorate | 2023 | Various | novel | War World series |
Setting
editFormation of the CoDominium
editThe point of departure of Pournelle's history is the establishment of the CoDominium (CD), a political alliance and later union between the United States of America and a revitalized Soviet Union. This union, achieved in the name of planetary stability, reigns over the Earth for over a hundred years. In that time, it achieves peace of a sort, as well as interstellar colonization, but at the price of a complete halt in both scientific and political evolution.
The CoDominium (CD) is a supranational alliance of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This alliance eventually becomes a de facto planetary government, and later, an interstellar empire. Despite this, no other nations on Earth are given representation or membership. Other major powers become mere client states. It is governed by a "Grand Senate", which is composed of Senators chosen from the two superpowers. A CoDominium Council exists and appears to function as a judicial branch. The CD did not unify the United States and the USSR, who appear to retain their separate identities and mutual distrust. The CD was only created for the shared benefit of the two member states. It does not govern either nation, and each state has been allowed to retain their government structures, nationalities, military forces, and to run their own internal affairs.
The United States of the CoDominium Era is a welfare state divided into two social classes: Citizens and Taxpayers. "Citizens" are welfare dependents who are required to live in walled sections of cities called "Welfare Islands." People are given whatever they need, including the drugs like Borloi to keep them pacified. There are no limits to welfare if they want it, except that they must live on a Welfare Island. Although people are free to gain an education and work or become a colonist, many citizens did not, preferring to live their whole lives supported by the government. Generally, citizens are uneducated and illiterate. Some BuReLoc involuntary colonists are Citizens. By the late CD era, the Welfare Islands were three generations old. "Taxpayers" are the working, educated, and privileged middle to the upper class. They carry identification cards to separate them from Citizens.
The Empire is organized by sectors, ruled by a Viceroy who serves as a representative of the Crown. Each sector has its own Council, headed by a Lord President, and its own Parliament. The Imperial government is divided into several ministries, including External Affairs, War, and Science. Some planets are governed by an aristocracy, although at least one member world is a republic.
For the most part, the stars with inhabitable planets in the CoDominium are obscure and unnamed on current star charts. For instance, the world of New Washington and its sister planet Franklin orbit a red dwarf at some distance from the Solar System. Such stars are very common in the galaxy but even the closest ones are too dim to observe without equipment, Proxima Centauri being the obvious example. Other habitable systems in the CoDominium have stars in the stellar classes F, G and K, which are common but dim compared to the named stars in the night sky. One of the few stars explicitly named in the CoDominium stories is 82 Eridani, containing the Meiji colony. Viewed from Earth, 82 Eridani is a star of the fourth magnitude at 20 light-years distance. Beyond 50 light-years such stars are below sixth magnitude and therefore invisible to the naked eye, so they are unnamed and largely unrecorded, except in astronomical sky surveys. These are the stars likely to host colonies of the CoDominium. There is no mention in the canon of closer candidate systems such as Tau Ceti and Epsilon Indi.
During the CoDominium era, instantaneous interstellar travel as a result of the Alderson Drive gave humanity the ability to explore, colonize, and exploit various star systems. As a result, many of the space settlements are on planets that are similar to Earth. At the very least, a colony world was barely inhabitable for human life without technological support. Many colonies were founded by ethnic minorities, religious groups, or political groups. Some are started by businesses, for commercial reasons. Most lack an industrial base and have little advanced technology as a result. The elite, more technologically advanced colonies are ones settled and supported by the Earth countries. These elite worlds have their own fleets and enjoy some independence from the CD.
These are apparently systems that retained enough technology after the Secession Wars to present a threat to the Second Empire, by resisting takeover and mounting raids against Empire systems. The presence or threat of Outies is mentioned in all the Second Empire stories as a reason for the Imperial Navy having to deal with events in the most expeditious way possible, rather than allowing time to achieve ideal solutions.
Pournelle's daughter, Jennifer R. Pournelle, has drawn on these themes, writing Outies, an authorized sequel[7] to King David's Spaceship, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Gripping Hand, that attempts to marry hard science fiction with social science fiction as it explores what it means to be an "alien" in this Empire, and to what degree biology is destiny.[8] Outies was first published as an e-book[citation needed] in 2010, and was then released in trade paperback[9] in Q1, 2011.
References
edit- ^ "It Takes Two". Clarion-Ledger (Newspapers.com). Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Lloyd, David (February 23, 1978). "It's in the stars". The Charlotte Observer (Newspapers.com). Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Harris, Mark. "The hands rocking "hard" fantasy lose grip". The Vancouver Sun (Newspapers.com). Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Aldiss, Brian W. (1986). Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. David Wingrove (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. p. 655n43. ISBN 0-689-11839-2. OCLC 13667312.
- ^ Kube-Mcdowell, Michael P. (February 14, 1982). "Interplanetary mission seeks to retrieve library". The South Bend Tribune (Newspapers.com). Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Smith II, Phillip E. (May 28, 1981). "Space Fable in Wells Vein". The Pittsburgh Press (Newspapers.com). Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Pournelle, Jennifer Rene (2010). Outies. New Brookland Press. ISBN 9780615432717.
- ^ Hirst, K. Kris. "Outies, Gender Neutrality and Social Science Fiction: An Interview with Jennifer Pournelle". Archived from the original on February 16, 2011.
- ^ "Outies". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2011.