This novel was published in Dismember 1986. Since then the Soviet union has fallen apart, the repressive apartheid government of South Africa has been abolished, and the political leaders elsewhere have changed. So the parallel is no longer current; it has become dated. But this does provide us the chance to compare the future offered by the Tyrant to what is currently developing. After the Soviet Union dissolved, some of its former members, and even parts of Russia itself, have fallen into vicious local warfare. Crime runs rampant, there is hunger, widespread alcoholism, and the average human lifespan has dropped dramatically. Elsewhere on the globe warfare continues, some of it genocidal in nature, and the ratio of food to population is worsening to the verge of disaster. Even in rich America many ordinary folk are struggling, their dreams stifled. Wouldn’t it have been better to unify and move into space?
Some may wonder about the Tyrant’s kidney disease. The fact is that though medicine, like other sciences, is advancing rapidly, so are job stress, pollution, pathogens, and disease resistance to treatment. So chances are that there will still be kidney disease in the 27th century, assuming that our kind still exists then. The course of treatment is directly adapted from that of the 1970’s. I had undertaken a collaboration with a doctor titled Death or Dialysis, covering kidney disease and its treatment, including dialysis and transplants. I interviewed patients and doctors, saw the facilities, and learned a lot about kidney disease. But as the project neared completion, and a small publisher had agreed to publish it, the doctor changed his mind, and I was left with an unusable manuscript and a solid appreciation for this branch of medicine. So I made some use of the material by building it into this novel. If the science seems dated—well, again, this is a parallel to the medicine of a generation ago. With luck, there will some day come an artificial kidney as good as a living one, but that is not within the scope of this particular series.
I wrapped up the 4th Adept fantasy novel Out of Phaze, and started writing Statesman SapTimber 2, 1985; it moved well, and I completed it NoRemember 24, despite taking three days off to be guest of honor at Fallcon in Gainesville, Florida. Thereafter I started in on the 5th Incarnations novel, Being a Green Mother. I had thought there would be more Space Tyrant novels, as sister Spirit Hubris became the Tyrant and guided mankind on into the galaxy, and daughter Hopie Hubris had a son who partook even more of Hope’s nature than the women did. Certainly the publisher, AVON BOOKS, was interested, as the series was doing very well commercially. But fate intervened. I was publishing my science fiction with AVON and my fantasy with DEL REY, and the fantasy was making the national bestseller lists. That absolutely infuriated the critics, but even they could not have scripted the mischief that came upon my fantasy, which in turn affected my science fiction. My fantasy editor was Lester del Rey, and I had liked him very well. But he was growing older, and like the Tyrant, was on occasion becoming dictatorial and arbitrary, and getting worse. I feared increasingly for the integrity of my novels. When he chopped off the entire first chapter of the 8th Xanth novel, Crewel Lye, I swore that I would not allow such meat-cleaver editing to happen again. I completed my contractual obligation by delivering Golem in the Gears, carefully tailored to be too short to allow for any cutting, and shut down the Xanth series. When he tried to do it again, by chopping off half—or maybe all—of the Author’s Note for the 4th Incarnations novel, Wielding a Red Sword, the one commenting on my computerization and introducing the suicidal girl I named Ligeia, I balked. The editor would neither argue the case nor yield; he stonewalled me. This is not good policy when dealing with any party, and especially not with me, as more than one publisher has discovered the hard way. For about six months, as I recall, the issue was at impasse. I asked the publisher for a different editor, as I could no longer work with this one, but Lester del Rey vetoed that. Then I prepared to get legal, repay the advance, revoke the contract and sell the remainder of the Incarnations series to AVON, who was eager for it. But the publisher would not let the series go. It prevailed on Lester to let the Author’s Note be, so I could not legally revoke the contract. So I won my case on the novel, but by this time I was determined to leave, as I wanted never again to face this type of editing. My agent had already crafted a deal with AVON for the last four Incarnations novels; this cut out the first two of that package. What to do? I pondered, then inquired: would AVON settle for three future Xanths instead of two present Incarnations? I had put away the series, awaiting a change of editors at DEL REY, because I still liked the publisher, but in the circumstance I could find another editor elsewhere. AVON leaped over the moon, indicating the affirmative. So AVON got only the 6th and 7th Incarnations, and I un-retired the Xanth series with Vale of the Vole. Thus I left DEL REY, though neither I nor the publisher wanted that to happen; it was one of the supreme ironies of my career. I understand I was one of several best-selling writers to depart for similar reason, ultimately costing DEL REY its place as the leading genre publisher. And Space Tyrant disappeared. Because though in terms of literary craftsmanship Space Tyrant is superior to Xanth, in terms of commercial sales appeal it isn’t in Xanth’s league. AVON had no further interest in the medium stuff now that it had the big stuff. Thus it was Xanth that killed the Space Tyrant, inadvertently. And yes, no more chapters or Author’s Notes were touched; AVON, at least, had gotten the point. Lester del Rey had been a fine editor, perhaps the most successful commercially the genre has seen, and I liked him personally, but he was unable to grasp when to ease off, and thus went far toward destroying the empire he had built. Like the Tyrant, perhaps, in his madness.
So why am I reviving the series now? Well, I expect to write only one more novel, The Iron Maiden, as part of my general policy of wrapping things up before I die. No, I don’t expect to kick the bucket soon, but at this writing I’m within a month of nominal retirement age, 65, and a number of other genre writers my age or younger, like John Brunner and Roger Zelazny, have already departed. I’m in pretty good health, but no person knows exactly how much time he has left, so it’s better to do what needs to be done in good order. That’s why I wrote the 4th Mode novel, DoOon Mode, earlier this year. It is hard to return to a series after a lapse of a decade or more; too much has been forgotten. But I am now in another project, that of returning all my out-of-print novels to print via the Internet, and while proofreading this series I made a complete character list, notes on special aspects, and a series timeline. Those, together with the refreshment of my memory, make the next novel convenient. After all, I already have the setting, characters, and larger story; all I need are the details.
I must say, this has been an emotional experience. Good writing moves the author as well as the reader, and these novels move me. I liked remembering the science of colonizing the Solar System, and I enjoyed the passing humor. But mostly it was the realism of the characters, who became like friends to me. Parting is supposed to be such sweet sorrow, but when the parting is other than voluntary, it hurts. Consider the women in Hope’s life: The pain of Helse’s death in the first novel, of Hope’s loss of Roulette and career in the second, loss of Megan in the third, Shelia’s death in the fourth, and Forta’s death in the fifth—these are all good women who loved him, yet who had to leave him. He would have stayed with any one of them, had not cruel fate intervened. But I had to write it as it was destined to be, and I could not change any of it when I reread it. I feel a pang of separation as I finish any novel, which is one reason I go immediately into the next: it eases the distress. But these Space Tyrant novels hurt more than usual, and the ending of the series hurts more yet. So I am abating that by returning to the series, at least for one more book.
One other thing: Hope’s age in this 5th novel matches mine today, making it easier to identify with him. Not that it was ever hard to do. Though I am Saxon rather than Hispanic, I am a naturalized immigrant, and I came to America from Spain, leaving all but my fracturing family behind. My politics are generally liberal, as are Hope’s. Though I do not share
his madness, as far as I know, others have seen me as weird, and I was at one point excluded on my insurance for all mental diseases. I have always been somewhat square peggish in a society of round holes. So I rather like Hope Hubris, and believe I understand him.
One minor detail bugged me, however. It seemed to me that when Hope went to Jupiter, he remarked on the way those who reside in space don’t fear vacuum as much as pressure, while those who live in the deep atmosphere fear vacuum more than pressure, it being a matter of what threat they are used to. But later in the series he remarks on how planetary folk fear pressure more. Is this inconsistent? I tried to verify the first case but even with global searches was unable. So I can’t be sure it is inconsistent, but if it is, chalk it up to Hope’s mem-wash: some things in his mind got changed.
I am a fan of the Arabian Nights fantasy tales. My novel Hasan is an adaptation of one of those, and there’s a looser usage in my collaboration with Afred Tella, The Willing Spirit. Here in Statesman I borrowed from the story of the Ifrit’s Beauty Contest. That’s when supernatural beings put a handsome prince and lovely princess together to compare their beauty. I used it again in Xanth; a good notion can have many variants. If any readers are intrigued, I recommend they check one of the translations of The Arabian Nights, otherwise called A Thousand Nights and A Night. Go to the library for the original; don’t bother with the denatured versions for children. They are fantastic stories, literally.
Finally, I share the Dream. I fear that ruinous human overpopulation is about to destroy our situation on this globe, but that a thrust into space as described here could ease that. The energy required for rocketing up off the planet makes that route unfeasible, but if gravity shielding of the type used in this series were to be discovered, then it would be possible. Of course it would also need contra-terrene iron, and bubblene, and eventually light-translation travel, and a host of other devices. It would hardly be easy, considering the hazards of space. But if it could be done—what a future we might have!
This Author’s note was written in July, 1999.
STATESMAN
Volume 5: Bio of a Space Tyrant
Copyright © 1986 by Piers Anthony
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Piers Anthony, Bio of a Space Tyrant Vol. 5. Statesman
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