"The Emperor's Fan" is a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
short story by American writer
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...
, the fourth of his
Novarian series
The Novarian series is a sequence of fantasy stories by L. Sprague de Camp, published between 1968 and 1989. The series contains some of de Camp's most innovative works of fantasy, featuring explorations of various political systems, an inversion ...
. It was first published in ''
Astounding: The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology'', edited by
Harry Harrison, in 1973. It has since been reprinted in other anthologies, including ''
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories
''The Year's Best Fantasy Stories'' is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in 1975. Despite the anthology's title, it actually gathers together pieces originall ...
'', edited by
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. L ...
(1975), as well as such collections of de Camp's work as ''
The Best of L. Sprague de Camp
''The Best of L. Sprague de Camp'' is a collection of writings by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in February 1978 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in May of the ...
'' (1978) and ''
Footprints on Sand
''Footprints on Sand: a Literary Sampler'' is a 1981 collection of writings by science fiction authors L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, illustrated by C. H. Burnett, published by Advent. The collection was compiled to celebrate th ...
'' (1981).
It has also been translated into
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
.
Plot summary
Tsotuga the Fourth, emperor of Kuromon, is a competent but dull ruler, notable only for occasional temperamental outbursts. Having poisoned his father to attain the throne, he finds his dreams haunted by his father's spirit, who prophecies a dreadful doom for him. Seeking some impregnable magical defense, Tsotuga is heartened when his crony, Reiro the Beggar, tells him that just such a weapon is said to be in the possession of the sorcerer Ajandra, from the tropical empire of Mulvan.
Tsotuga receives Ajandra, who produces a large painted fan, created centuries before for the king of the Gwoling Islands. Anything at which the fan is waved vanishes, and can only be recalled by tapping the fan in a particular pattern. The list of patterns is contained in a code book Ajandra also possesses. As an instance of the fan's power, the sorcerer relates how Prince Wangerr, grandson of the king for whom it was made, had once even fanned away a dragon he had encountered. After seeing the fan's powers demonstrated, Tsotuga purchases the fan and its code book.
For a month all is well; then the emperor is irked by his finance minister, Yaebu, and fans him away. He instantly regrets the action, but cannot bring the minister back, as he had hidden the code book and cannot remember where. The missing book is searched for, but fruitlessly. Spring advances, and Tsotuga becomes irritated with Chingitu, the minister of war, and Dzakusan, the prime minister, each of whom also suffers Yaebu's fate. He is now running short of functionaries, and the government suffers. Therefore, on the advice of his wife the empress Nasako, Tsotuga appoints as his new prime minister Zamben of Jompei, Supervisor of Roads and Bridges for Jade Mountain Province. Unbeknownst to him, Zamben is also the empress's secret lover.
Zamben proves an able administrator and so ingratiates himself with the emperor that he even ousts Reiro the Beggar from his position as the emperor's crony. Canny as well as ambitious, he manages through a stratagem to switch Tsotuga's fan for a duplicate. When the testy monarch eventually loses his temper with him as he had with his previous ministers and tries to fan him away, Zamben produces the true fan and dispatches the tyrant with his own weapon. To allay suspicion, he and Nasako give out that the vanished ruler had absent-mindedly fanned ''himself''. The two subsequently wed, making Zamben imperial consort and regent to the fourteen-year-old Prince Wakumba, in effect emperor himself in all but name.
Zamben tries to reconstruct the fan's lost code book by trial and error, testing various combinations of taps with the fan and noting what he gets each time. A succession of past victims are restored thus, among them Yaebu — and the dragon once fanned away by Wangerr of Gwoling! The dragon promptly eats Zamben, fan and all, and bursts from the palace.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Yaebu and Nasako become co-regents for Prince Wakumba. The missing code book finally turns up when the prince is crowned the new emperor — it was in a secret compartment in the crown of state. But without the fan it is useless. Court wizard Koxima is commissioned to create a replacement fan but is unsuccessful. The code book is consigned to the imperial archives as a curiosity, and the weapon's remaining victims are doomed to languish in limbo.
Chronologically, "The Emperor's Fan" is the earliest story in the Novarian series, being set centuries before the others. It also drives part of the plot of the final volume, ''
The Honorable Barbarian
''The Honorable Barbarian'' is a fantasy novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth and final book of his Novarian series. It is a sequel both to the " Reluctant King" trilogy and to the Novarian sequence's only short story, "The Empe ...
'', in which the fan is at last recreated and a later emperor accidentally consigned to the fan's limbo. The attempt to restore that emperor brings back Tsotuga instead, resulting in him regaining the throne of Kuromon after an absence of two hundred years.
Setting
"The Emperor's Fan" does not take place in Novaria itself, but the eastern empire of Kuromon, another country in the same world. Kuromon is on a different continent, separated from that in which Novaria and Mulvan are found by the Eastern Ocean and the Gwoling Islands. De Camp patterned the empire after
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Kuromon is revisited in the final book in the Novarian series, ''
The Honorable Barbarian
''The Honorable Barbarian'' is a fantasy novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth and final book of his Novarian series. It is a sequel both to the " Reluctant King" trilogy and to the Novarian sequence's only short story, "The Empe ...
'', in which the magical fan is finally recreated. The world of which Novaria and Kuromon are part is a
parallel world to
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
, a plane of existence related to ours in that ours constitutes its
afterlife
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
. Culturally it bears resemblances to our
Classical and
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
eras.
Reception
David Bratman David Bratman is a librarian and Tolkien scholar.
Biography
David Bratman was born in Chicago to Robert Bratman, a physician, and his wife Nancy, an editor. He was one of four sons in the family. He was brought up in Cleveland, Ohio and then in ...
, in ''
Mythprint
The Mythopoeic Society (MythSoc) is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and C. S. Lewis, all members of The Inklings, an informal group of write ...
'', writes that he "treasure
"The Emperor's Fan" as one of "a few gems" among its author's later fiction, calling "
e fan in question ... one of de Camp's cleverest inventions." Of de Camp's later work in general, Bratman notes "
e best shows even more incisive humor and ornate imagination than his earlier work, and it's blessedly free of pulpy writing." He praises de Camp's "elegant, lapidary style that retained the virtues of clarity, and the skill of his plotting disguises any sketchiness in characterization."
[ Bratman, David. "L. Sprague de Camp: An Appreciation" in ''Mythprint'' v. 37, no. 12 (whole no. 225), Dec. 2000, p. 14.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emperors Fan, The
Fantasy short stories
Short stories by L. Sprague de Camp
1973 short stories