Be honest. Are people going to figure it out…granted I can keep my production schedule?
So what do you think about the title form change?
by CJ | Jul 24, 2015 | Journal | 63 comments
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I agree with a lot of the comments (all?) Given the deplorable state of some search engines (compared with Google), I think “Foreigner ##: (title)” may be best: that way a listing is likely to get them in order, especially if the first nine are ## = 01 to 09. I, if I were DAW, would retcon the previous titles.
As far as title structure, the two syllable title, Tracker, disconcerted me more than Convergence does. (My trauma.) Without advocacy or prejudice, I offer the following options:
Transmogrifier (kidding…kidding…)
Allyer (neologism?)
Assembler
Caucaser (neologism?)
Clusterer (neologism?)
Conjoiner
Convener
Coupler (three syllable pronunciation: CUP-l-er)
Gatherer
Uniter.
* * *
(What would you call the above, since it doesn’t represent passage or time or omission? Ellipsis? Asterism? ???)
I’m rereading Chanur, and I read a most appalling blog from a Nigerian woman totally defending the kidnap and r*** method of tribal “marriage”, even defending Boko Haram, insisting it was Divine and Moral. I was also watching the five part (Africa, Asia, America, Australia, Europe) PBS [/BBC?] series on human genetics by continent, whose title has escaped from what I ironically call my mind. To be sure, Nigerians in the past had a severe need for genetic mixing.
It occurred to me that in addition to all the story ideas I had heard (or advocated), hani ship families have a real genetics problem, somewhat akin to the abandonment of tribes/multi-generational homes in the industrial revolution, but without the inherent transportation of large populations from hamlets to genetically mixing cities. Prevention of inbreeding would be critical. When Meras’ children need genetically safe mates, they…? (The author of this post, whether he is the apparent author or not, releases this idea to you freely, without compensation.)
I agree on the “Foreigner #00: Title_Goes_Here” format, and note that the leading zero, i.e. #01…#09 aids alphabetization in a sanely human-readable (atevi-readable?) format. It sorts better, in proper order.
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Assembler — But then you’d need a Compiler and perhaps an Executor or an Executrix. — Heheheh. (Er, it’s programmer humor of course.) Hmm, actually, the order would be Compiler, Assembler, Executor/-trix.
—–
Right, about hani spacer clans. It occurs to me that at least the few Stationer Protected / Immune clans would have an advantage in already having males in space who know anything of the life, and shipping clans’ males downworld would also have some advantage, including smaller clans or insystemer clans. They could all gain by putting males into space aboard ships, and yes, there’s the need for both males and females to transfer between ships/stations (and clans) in order to give a better chance at genetic diversity. That would have to fit, somehow, in with hani cultural and biological imperatives for how families and clans are maintained.
It seems like there’d also be a lot of story territotry unexplored involving how males function in hani society, whether in Hermitage or in clans, and there are models there both in how lions live and in how intelligent males would find ways to live.
What happens when you not only have hani males in space, but hani children and adolescents? They’d have to work that out too, and the only working model they probably have would be the Station clans.
I’m still curious about the orbital lander crew, Rau clan, I think, who gave Chanur a ride downworld and then back up, rescuing na Khym. — And it seems like there might be some outcome for clan Hander, who lost Handur’s Voyager to a kif attack. There’s a clue in the books that Handur are from some other part of Anuurn, possibly the other side (hemisphere) of the planet.
Besides hani, what about the mahendo’sat and the stsho? Plenty material there too. — I would love another book to be hani-centered, but there are surely story-perspectives other than Chanur clan, with hand, mahe, and stsho.
(Auto-incorrect wants to make hash of the alien words. I apologize for any typos that slipped through.)
Er, and since Chanur and the Compact aren’t mine, I can’t hold ownership of the above either. If it’s useful for story material, background, then good, have at it.
Correction: In programming, compilers and assemblers are not necessarily related. Some compilers have produced object code directly. And back in the day when I was building, working with, my IMSAI 8080, I wrote code directly in 8080 assembler language, both CP/M-1.4 BIOS, and a ROM monitor.
Interesting notion. The ship-families of the hani are closely tied to the planet now—because the males haven’t, until Khym, voyaged in space. They have to do something about restructuring their social imperatives for exactly that reason. Khym is a ‘retired’ gentleman, in a sense: figuring how to restructure the ‘traditional’ role of the young males, particularly those who never reach a lordship position—will be a difficulty. The hani as they are in Chanur would view an all-male ship ranging about with more apprehension than they would a kif.
BCS hit the plot point on the head I got lost in the underbrush alluding to: Legacy’s children hit puberty and what do you do with them? All they know is space.
I do note Vigilance and Mahijiru establish that some high population ships are running.
1) Can humans in fact adapt to a lifetime, breeding, in space? That isn’t at all clear to physiologists, I’m pretty sure. There are lots of very energetic particles in space, then add the near C relativistic velocities AUC ships have dropping out of jump, and things get pretty problematic.
2) The Pride ran with a crew of 6, Pyanfar, Haral, Chur, Geran, Tirun, and apprentice Hilfy. Legacy had a crew of 5, before they “got” Hallan, and it wasn’t at all clear what use he would be as crew!
AU “family ships” ran with family crews in the several scores, the newly legitimized Le Cygne understandably excepted. Just bridge crews must be a dozen or more.
3) The Pride went down to Anuurn when the urge took them. On Legacy Hilfy would soon have had to lay down the law–any crew “getting ideas” would lose her berth. She can’t afford to have a single crewmember incapacitated! Not to mention, Legacy isn’t “kid-proofed”.
And…
There is a clear solution to the kiffish (also RAH’s TMIAHM) “throwing rocks” idea, and resolution of the “waste” of young able men, including Dahan. But this is not the place for such discussions.
I was playing with an idea where humans have a requirement that the last couple of places a colony ship stops at, before ‘jumping off’ to their destination, have parties with everyone involved who can be, for the improvement of diversity – and the spacers who are in those ports are enthusiastic about participating. (It does result in them having a reputation for being wild.) They don’t have family ships, though, or not any that my brain is seeing.
Female Dubliners were not encouraged to be chaste!
Intended more to insure a bigger gene pool for colonies, after some of the early ones had, um, problems.
Orphans can be really useful as genetic varietals. New male lions often kill all nursing cubs. I can see a woman bringing her child(ren) to another woman she trusts in order to save their live or keep them from abuse. Thereby must hang the traditional 1,001 stories.
Key is what you just wrote, “new male lions”. Prides are built around the related females, and their territory. Males are easy come, easy go. Every generation is sired by different males, preserving genetic diversity. Even if there are two males, usually brothers, they only share 50% of their genes. (It’s like with modern Europeans–even if we have 1-4% Neanderthal genes, because fraternal siblings only share 50%, together we share 20-30% of the Neanderthal genome.)
Huh. Genotyping and racial cleansing. A new look at an old vileness.
The facts do rather make a mockery of a “pure Aryan race”. Not to mention, we’re all African-Americans. 😉
Tommie, I like that idea. Have you ever tried writing? I’ve heard a few good story ideas from you here at the blog.
—–
Walt — The * * * three-star separator is indeed called an asterism. It’s also called that if they are arranged in a triangle. Of course, you’ve seen that commonly in books as a scene / section / time-and-place / viewpoint separator.
Other printer’s ornaments, dingbats, pi (pica) images, florets, etc. (there are many names, historically) are used (or under-used). It’s an opportunity for a little creative license.
I recall seeing older SF&F titles that sometimes used things like space stations, flying saucers, lightning bolts, comets, rocket ships, and so on for some SF&F charm and variety. Come to think of it, I think one early CJC title had the little space station symbol, an oval with three or four ovals around its waist and one above and below. Fun and charming.
But the three-star asterism and the Aldus Leaf (q.v.) are the most common. Memory excapes me. There’s a Greek term for that Aldus Leaf that goes back to grape or olive or laurel or some other leaves, because that was the inspiration for Aldus’ usage of his leaf, in decorating early printed books of Greek and Latin classics, in some of the very earliest roman and italic types (as opposed to blackletter / fetteschriften).
Oops, sorry, shop talk. 😉 Typographic and graphic arts history. Neat stuff, though.
I have, but only the one set in CJ’s Merovingian world ever produced any interest, an honorable mention from Science Fiction Writers of the Future. I thought that story was adequate, but kind of fun. The one that I thought was really good got a big zero from them. I concluded that though I have decent ideas, I must be failing to get them across. Therefore, I offer ideas to anyone who will run with them, just as I do in the fabric shop where I work. It turns out that getting the idea used is just more important to me than getting credit for it. I have this idea for a pair of trousers…
I had one, but it would not turn loose! It’s now 105K words. 😉
That’s a really large set of trousers!
As long as it’s a one word title, it works for me. I lost the ability to keep them all straight without looking online years ago. Speaking of which, an up to date bibliography on this site would be great. The Wikipedia one is fine, but I’m sure folks end up here looking for that information. “Have I read the most recent thing you’ve written” is the usual reason I look at an author’s web site – sometimes that’s not clear on Amazon or in library catalogs.
Try http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk for keeping up with what’s published. It does a good job considering the rate that authors come and go.
OT: An asteroid is due to make a close approach Friday, passing 12x Earth-Moon distance. OK, the thing to watch for is information on how this “close” approach changes its orbit, as it assuredly will, e.g. as New Horizon used a slingshot around Jupiter. So next time around it will be different. How? When?
I have updated the Foreigner series list available at:
http://www.shinyfiction.com/cherryh-fan/foreigner/books.html
Note Amazon now shows the paperback available for Tracker.
I try to keep this list updated after checking the blog here and Amazon. The list is for USA/CAN publication. I would be happy to note for other countries/regions and languages, if I knew them.
I’ve shown Convergence as a working title.
Hi BCS, do you know Goodreads? CJ is a member there, and Goodreads lists english editions as well as translated ones, grouped under the original title if not splitted.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989968.C_J_Cherryh?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr
I’ve got librarian status there, so if you find any errors or have cover images to add, feel free to ask.
Regards
Ektus.
Thanks, ektus, I’ll look there. — I’ve somehow never joined Goodreads. Do I need a handle, i.e., BlueCatShip, or my real world name to join?
Honestly, I don’t know what the policy is. I’ve entered a handle as first name, my real first name as second and last name as last. Normally, only the first name (so in my case, the handle) is shown. To simply browse, joining should not be necessary. There are some anti-SPAM measures in place. “Normal” registered users are allowed to enter new books or editions and (at least for a short time frame after entering) edit their own entries, but subsequent changes must be done by librarians.
I think Convergence is an interesting title, and that those who are fans will still find it, no matter what.
Is this the end of an era though? Or will there be more books afterward?
@cwjordan, Above the Wave Without a Shore banner at the top of the page, find the tab labeled “Bibliography” Although CJ hasn’t updated the listing lately, it is a good listing of the older works both long form and short, and includes several works that aren’t mentioned very much now. Maybe CJ can find time to update the listing once she meets the deadline for Convergence.
I have a strong association of the ‘active’ one-word title written by CJ with the Foreigner series, never mind that you’ve written quite a few other one-word titles. Convergence doesn’t dissonate with that template in my mind, despite not being a job description.
I do have a lot of trouble keeping the titles straight, except for a few where the link with what’s happening in the book is clear to me – Foreigner, Invader (Jase coming down to Bren’s territory, even if it happens right at the end of the book), Inheritor (inheriting the space station), Explorer (meeting the Kyo), Deliverer (Bren rescuing Cajeiri). Even then, apart from the first three, I forget the number in the sequence.
I’ve got the physical bools in the right sequence on my shelf, and in Calibre I put numbers in front of the titles so they’ll present in the right sequence on my ereader (starting with 00a and 00b for the short stories).
It would help a lot with finding which is the new one to buy if the publisher put Foreigner no.# somewhere in the title or book info.
But I see comments elsewhere that a starting a new series which already numbers 14 books is a bit daunting; and that people are uncertain abouy starting a new series “somewhere in the middle”. It is understandable that being very consistent about titling the book Foreigner no.14, Title, might frighten off potential new buyers who think they can’t start on that book without reading the first 13 books first. That’s not something a publisher would want to do, even if the majority of buyers are establisher readers of the series. This might be mitigated by emphasing more strongly that it ‘s the start, or the second or final book in the 5th three-book arc within the overal story-line. In that regard, marking it clearly as being in the Foreigner iniverse will make it easy to find, and not emphasising the number, or giving equal weight to the placement within the current three-book arc, might be a way toreconcile both wished.
Though personally I’m very happy to have the number somewhee in tge title!
Sorry for the typos, typing on my phone keyboard is a bother.
Convergence…I likes it – a lot!