''Orion Shall Rise'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by American writer

Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...

, published in 1983. It is part of his

Maurai The Maurai series is a series of short stories and a novel by Poul Anderson set in a resource depleted, post-apocalyptic earth several centuries in the future. The series is named after its most frequent protagonists, citizens of the Maurai Federa ...

series.

Premise

The novel is set several hundred years after a devastating nuclear war which has pushed back the level of technology. The action focuses on four societies: * The Northwest Union, a technological, clan-based society in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

of North America * The Five Nations of the Mong, a feudal society in the center of North America, where an elite descended from post-war Russian, Chinese and Mongol invaders rules over a serf class descended from American citizens. * The Maurai Federation, an ecotopian society in the Pacific, dominated by the

peoples of N'Zealann. * The Domain of Skyholm, a class-based European society located in France, the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

, and the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

dominated by an ancient pre-war

dirigible An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

aerostat An aerostat (, via French) is a lighter-than-air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the cra ...

. The aerostat is of the STARS type (Solar Thermal Aerostat Research Station), first described in 1980. Other nations mentioned include Angleylann, divided into small statelets including

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, Italya, the confederation of the Alemanns in central Europe, the Zheneralship of Espanya in the

Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, Corodo and Meyco to the south of the Northwest Union. Brief mention is made of Benghal, part of the Brahmard confederacy mentioned in other Maurai stories, and an extremely patriarchal society located in

Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...

. The novel follows a group of characters as they navigate tensions between several of the nations. The title derives from the Orion project, which one of the factions intends to resurrect. The world depicted is full of historical paradoxes and apparent anachronisms, due to unequal economic and technological development in various regions and continents, and the inability of the resource-depleted world to fully use technologies which were retained or re-discovered. * France is ruled by an English-speaking aristocracy - a precise mirror image of the situation of England after the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

. * The Skyholm aristocrats in France are feudal lords on the ground, and at the same time fly supersonic planes in the air. * France has a feudal society like in the Middle Ages, and faces across the Rhine a Germany inhabited by barbarian tribes, as in the time of the Roman Empire. * The Maurai Federation, a powerful maritime empire presided over by a Constitutional Queen, recalls the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

under

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

- but the Maurai Polynesian sexual mores are the very opposite of

Victorian morality Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era. Victorian values emerged in all classes and reached all facets of Victorian living. The values of the period—which can be ...

. * The Northwest Union, like

Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

, secretly builds weapons which were forbidden after its defeat in a previous war - and comes up with 19th Century style

ironclads An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. Th ...

equipped with

nuclear bombs A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

References

External links

* 1983 American novels Novels by Poul Anderson American science fiction novels Post-apocalyptic novels Phantasia Press books Airships in fiction {{1980s-sf-novel-stub