Rihannsu saga questions

[bfollowell]

I've read on here that some tweaking was done on some of the Rihannsu books. Was this done back around 2000, when the new mmpb versions of My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way came out with the newer covers or was this done when Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages omnibus came out in 2006? Also, did all four of the initial volumes get some tweaking or was it mainly just the first two?

I was just curious what all was changed and when it was done.

I originally read My Enemy, My Ally over twenty years ago but I'm fairly certain I haven't read any of the others; definitely none after The Romulan Way and am thinking of picking up Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages and The Empty Chair for my Kindle. From what I've read on this forum, I think they'd be an excellent read.

Thanks to anyone that may be able to answer my questions.

- Byron

 

[Christopher]

I've read on here that some tweaking was done on some of the Rihannsu books. Was this done back around 2000, when the new mmpb versions of My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way came out with the newer covers or was this done when Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages omnibus came out in 2006? Also, did all four of the initial volumes get some tweaking or was it mainly just the first two?

The tweaks were made for The Bloodwing Voyages, which in turn was published around the same time that the concluding novel, The Empty Chair, was published. The edits were minor and were done mainly to make the books more consistent with one another. The original books were written at a time when the Trek chronology wasn't as clearly established, and was based on the assumption that there was a second 5-year mission between TOS and TMP. ME,MA and TRW (and the first Duane novel, The Wounded Sky) were intended to take place before TMP (with Spock's World following and taking place shortly after it), yet several years beyond TOS, with a ship that was in between its TOS and TMP configurations. However, when the next book, Swordhunt (originally published as two volumes, Swordhunt and Honor Blade), was written quite a few years later, the editorial decision was made to retcon the whole thing to take place before TMP in a more conventional TOS-era setting. Yet when The Bloodwing Voyages and The Empty Chair were done several years on from that, this was rethought and the whole thing was tweaked to a post-TMP setting.

But the actual edits are quite minor, since most of the chronological cues in the books were implicit to begin with. A reference to Chapel pursuing her doctorate is deleted from ME,MA. References to Uhura's and Sulu's ranks are adjusted to fit the post-TMP setting. Some (but not all) references to uniform colors are tweaked to fit. A reference in Swordhunt to "The Doomsday Machine" being "not so very long ago" was deleted. Some slight changes were made in deference to Trek canon; the computer's dialogue was made a bit less conversational in ME,MA, a reference in Swordhunt to the Klingon "legislature" was changed to "High Council," and some warp-factor references were reduced by one (though some references to warp 11 or warp 13 are retained). And of course Swordhunt was recombined into a single book for the omnibus, with the editor's note from the original 2-volume edition not included.

Otherwise, most of the text changes are merely stylistic -- altering the use of capitalization and italics, fixing typos, eliminating inconsistencies in the use of character names, that sort of thing.

 

[bfollowell]

Thanks Christopher.

I haven't read any of your books yet either but plan to after I get caught up a little on the core stuff. I just have sooooo much reading to do!

- Byron

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think I read that Ael's oft-envoked "Elements" were renamed "Powers" in the re-release, a la Vulcan's Heart.

 

[Christopher]

I think I read that Ael's oft-envoked "Elements" were renamed "Powers" in the re-release, a la Vulcan's Heart.

Actually it's the other way around. Duane established the Rihannsu's "Elements" worship in My Enemy, My Ally, but in the original The Romulan Way, references to "Elements" were intermingled with references to "Powers" (after Duane's Young Wizards series) or "Powers and Elements." For The Bloodwing Voyages, all those references were standardized as just "Elements."

 

[Timo]

a reference in Swordhunt to the Klingon "legislature" was changed to "High Council"

But the references to a Klingon Emperor living and ruling in the 2270s still remain?

It was too bad that the ultimate choice was made to have the saga take place after TMP, when a couple of the interesting character issues were so clearly pre-TMP: Kirk coping with the idea of commanding more than his own starship, Chapel leaving Korby finally behind and moving on with her career, and of course Ael's dysfunctional kinsmen still squabbling about the whole "Enterprise Incident" business. If the idea was just to keep the saga self-consistent, then it would have done no harm to place TMP more than eight years after those TOS stories, as the saga time references would then require. A 2278 TMP would be the last hurrah of the pajama uniforms, not their first appearance.

OTOH, the other novels written for the era would suffer if TMP were moved to the (originally intended?) late 2270s... Was this perhaps a continuity consideration after all.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

a reference in Swordhunt to the Klingon "legislature" was changed to "High Council"

But the references to a Klingon Emperor living and ruling in the 2270s still remain?

The primary goal was to make the books consistent with one another, not to force them to conform to modern canon. As I said, there were only a few slight changes in deference to later canon, and those were probably to make the earlier books consistent with Duane's choices in writing the later books, which did reflect some more modern influences. Perhaps she chose to reference the High Council in The Empty Chair and the change in Swordhunt was made for consistency with that.

OTOH, the other novels written for the era would suffer if TMP were moved to the (originally intended?) late 2270s... Was this perhaps a continuity consideration after all.

I figure it was probably just the author's own prerogative to change her mind. After all, fully 22 years passed between My Enemy, My Ally and The Empty Chair. The Diane Duane who wrote TEC probably had a different perspective on Trek continuity than did the Diane Duane who wrote ME,MA. The priority of the project was internal consistency within the saga itself, but that doesn't mean it was obligated to conform to the author's earlier choices. Indeed, that's generally not the way it works. When authors who have produced an extended body of work over the course of decades put out collected editions and revise them for consistency, it's pretty much a given that the earlier works will be revised for consistency with the later works, rather than the reverse. (See, for instance, Poul Anderson's early Flandry and van Rijn stories which were revised when collected in the '70s.)

 

[Timo]

The primary goal was to make the books consistent with one another, not to force them to conform to modern canon.

Fair enough. Curiously, the Klingon Emperor was first evoked in a book written long after "Rightful Heir" - but then again, plenty of enjoyable novels had been written before that episode to feature such a Klingon ruler in the 23rd century. It would be nice to think that there in fact was a Klingon Emperor (and perhaps also a counter-Emperor or three) in power in the 2270s, just not anybody strong enough to have staying power in the history books. Or perhaps somebody too strong for posterity?

Certainly the saga even in its original, temporally more ambiguous form wasn't particularly heretical; slipping it into overall Trek continuity in its revised form ought to be a breeze, for those who care.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

Given that we know canonically (from TNG: "Unification") that new Klingon rulers rewrite history to suit their agendas, it's entirely possible that there could've been a 23rd-century emperor who was later written out of history or reinterpreted as something other than a proper emperor.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Given that we know canonically (from TNG: "Unification") that new Klingon rulers rewrite history to suit their agendas, it's entirely possible that there could've been a 23rd-century emperor who was later written out of history or reinterpreted as something other than a proper emperor.

Definitely. Similarly, in TNG, K'Ehleyr was told that women couldn't be on the High Council when we'd already seen Azetbur replace her father, Gorkon, as Chancellor in ST VI.

 

[Christopher]

You mean Picard was told that, in "Redemption." And it's not quite the same, for Gowron only said "Women may not serve on the Council," present tense, not that women had never served on the Council.

 

[Therin of Andor]

You mean Picard was told that, in "Redemption." And it's not quite the same, for Gowron only said "Women may not serve on the Council," present tense, not that women had never served on the Council.

Yeah, but that didn't stop several decades of fan debate over the split hairs.

 

[Timo]

...One such split being, does ruling over the High Council count as "serving" the High Council? I mean, humble Earthlings do say they are performing a public service by acting as leaders or managers - but would a Klingon ever think like that?

Anyway, Gowron in "Reunion" is asking what K'Ehleyr wants as compensation for favoring him. Perhaps he's saying "What do you want? A ship of your own? A seat in the Council? Qo'noS neatly folded in your back pocket? Don't be ridiculous, woman - surely there is something realistic you might want!"...

Really, it's the live-action Trek that is in greater need of retroactive continuity than the various novel series...

Timo Saloniemi