[Book/Fiction]: Space Viking, reviewed by ShannonA (4/3)

[RPGnet Reviews]

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14337.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

<i>Space Viking</i>, a science-fiction novel from the 1960s, appears to have influenced a few specific areas in the Traveller universe, but is more useful to Traveller GMs looking for inspiration regarding the general ideas of feudalism and space travel found in the <I>Traveller</i> game.

Go to the full review (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14337.phtml) for more information.

[Dropkicker]

As a note, the text of the book is available for free from Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20728.

[Harmast]

Isn't the Anderson series Miller gained inspiration from the Technic books which are composed of the Polesotechnic League stories (Nicholas van Rijn) and the Terran Empire stories (the Dominic Flandry stories mentioned) as opposed to the Psychotechnic League, which were built from early stories (50s as opposed to 60s-70s) with very different themes?

That said, adventuring in the Psychotechnic League could be very interesting. It's political underpinnings are quite different from most of the list that influenced Traveller (and most of modern sci-fi roleplaying).

[ShannonA]

Isn't the Anderson series Miller gained inspiration from the Technic books which are composed of the Polesotechnic League stories (Nicholas van Rijn) and the Terran Empire stories (the Dominic Flandry stories mentioned) as opposed to the Psychotechnic League, which were built from early stories (50s as opposed to 60s-70s) with very different themes?


That's probably the case. The interview I read where the P* League stories were mentioned totally munged the title of the series, so I had to take a guess.

[gorillacus]

Good insights Shannon.

It was always my thoughts that the Sword Worlds were included in the Spinward Marches as a sort of 'future history yet to pass'. When the 3rd Imperium went south, the Sword Worlders would have emerged as the Space Vikings to pick the corpse of the Marches.

But that never happened.

Piper had some interesting (freakin' reactionary) thoughts about democracy. Scary, but interesting. Which made him a worthwhile read.

Keep up the Traveller zeitgeist exploration. Look forward to what you have to say about Anderson.

-Sean

[ShannonA]

It was always my thoughts that the Sword Worlds were included in the Spinward Marches as a sort of 'future history yet to pass'. When the 3rd Imperium went south, the Sword Worlders would have emerged as the Space Vikings to pick the corpse of the Marches.


When TNE came out, I was very confused that they had people called Space Vikings, and yet they weren't the Sword Worlders, so I kept trying and trying to make the connection (which didn't exist).