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Alastor Cluster
The Alastor Cluster is the fictional setting of three of American writer Jack Vance's novels: '' Trullion: Alastor 2262'' (1973), '' Marune: Alastor 933'' (1975), and '' Wyst: Alastor 1716'' (1978), each named after a world in the cluster. Vance planned a fourth novel ''Pharism: Alastor 458'', but it was never written. A globular star cluster Vance describes as "a whorl of thirty thousand live stars in an irregular volume twenty to thirty light-years in diameter," the Alastor Cluster is part of Vance's larger Gaean Reach fictional universe. Three thousand of the star systems in the cluster are inhabited by five trillion humans. Vance describes them as having "little in common except their lack of uniformity." They are ruled by the mostly hands-off, laissez-faire Connatic, Oman Ursht, "the sixteenth of the Idite dynasty". His motto is "when in doubt, do nothing." The Connatic's palace, Lusz, on the planet Numenes, rises "ten thousand feet above the sea on five great pylons", and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names. Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984, and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 15th Grand Master in 1997, and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers. His most notable awards included Hugo Awards in 1963 for ''The Dragon Masters'', in 1967 for ''The Last Castle'', and in 2010 for his memoir ''This Is Me, Jack Vance!''; the Nebula Award in 1966, also for ''The Last Castle''; the Jupiter Award in 1975 and the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for ''Lyonesse: Madouc''. and the Edgar Award in 1961 for the best first mystery novel for ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's own. Many pseudonym holders use pseudonyms because they wish to remain Anonymity, anonymous, but anonymity is difficult to achieve and often fraught with legal issues. Scope Pseudonyms include stage names, User (computing), user names, ring names, pen names, aliases, superhero or villain identities and code names, gamer identifications, and regnal names of emperors, popes, and other monarchs. In some cases, it may also include nicknames. Historically, they have sometimes taken the form of anagrams, Graecisms, and Latinisation (literature), Latinisations. Pseudonyms should not be confused with new names that replace old ones and become the individual's full-time name. Pseudonyms are "part-time" names, used only in certain contexts – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Astronomical Locations
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and context ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Book Series
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Series Introduced In 1973
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arrangement is ''codex'' (plural, ''codices''). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it contained. Each part of Aristotle's ''Physics'' is called a bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1970s Fantasy Novels
Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide; legionaries sack the town. * Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius. * Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. His soldiers embark on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tais Teng
Tais Teng (born 1952 in The Hague) is the pen name of a Dutch writer of fantasy fiction, hardboiled detective, children's books and science fiction. He also works as an illustrator, sculptor and writing coach. His real name is Thijs van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen. The length of his name proved cumbersome, as he tells in an interview with '' Mad Scientist Journal'', leaving little room for a title and a picture on the cover of his novels, so he shortened it to Tais Teng. Other pen names he used are Eban Hourst and Ben Bergen, which reflect his search for a pen name that was pronounceable in languages other than Dutch. Tais Teng has written more than a hundred novels both for adults and children in the Dutch language. He has won the Paul Harland Prize four times. His books have been translated in German, Finnish, French and English. Tais Teng is a Dutch and English-language bilingual writer. He likes to work together with other writers and has co authored short stories and novels wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deus Ex Machina
''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device. Origin of the expression ''Deus ex machina'' is a Latin calque . The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought onto stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane ('' mechane'') used to lower actors from above or a riser that brought them up through a trapdoor. Aeschylus introduced the idea, and it was used often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. The device is associated mostly with Greek tragedy, although it also appeared in comedies. Ancient examples Aeschylus used the device in his '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Thousand And One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition (), which rendered the title as ''The Arabian Nights' Entertainment''. The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa. Some tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature. Many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work ( fa, هزار افسان, lit. ''A Thousand Tales''), which in turn relied partly on Indian elements. Common to all the editions of the ''Nights'' is the framing device of the story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alastor 2262
Alastor (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλάστωρ, English translation: "avenger") refers to a number of people and concepts in Greek mythology: *Alastor, an epithet of the Greek God Zeus, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the ''Etymologicum Magnum'', which described him as the avenger of evil deeds, specifically familial bloodshed. As the personification of a curse, it was also a sidekick of the Erinyes. The name is also used, especially by the tragic writers, to designate any deity or demon who avenges wrongs committed by men. In Euripides' play ''Electra'', Orestes questions an oracle who calls upon him to kill his mother, and wonders if the oracle was not from Apollo, but some malicious ''alastor''. There was an altar to Zeus Alastor just outside the city walls of Thasos. **By the time of the 4th century BC, ''alastor'' in Greek had degraded to a generic type of insult, with the approximate meaning of "scoundrel". *Alastor, a prince of Pylos and son of King Neleus and Chl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harun Al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn al-Rashīd) was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 until his death. His reign is traditionally regarded to be the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age. His epithet "al-Rashid" translates to "the Orthodox", "the Just", "the Upright", or "the Rightly-Guided". Harun established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom") in Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a world center of knowledge, culture and trade. During his rule, the family of Barmakids, which played a deciding role in establishing the Abbasid Caliphate, declined gradually. In 796, he moved his court and government to Raqqa in present-day Syria. A Frankish mission came to offer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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