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League Of Peoples
{{Short description, Fictional association The League of Peoples is a fictional interstellar polity present in a series of novels by Canadian science fiction author James Alan Gardner. Although theoretically made up of every sentient race in the galaxy, in actuality the League is controlled by (from Humanity's standpoint) hyperadvanced beings who have little concern for wants, needs, and desires of the less evolved races. The League effectively has one law - no dangerous non-sentient creatures can cross between star systems. A dangerous non-sentient is defined by the league as any being which kills a sentient being or through negligence allows a sentient being to die. Any dangerous non-sentient that attempts to circumvent this law, or any being who knowingly aids in the attempt, is instantaneously but painlessly executed by the League. Although this renders interstellar war impossible, it does not prevent mayhem on individual planets, nor does it stop unethical behavior that stops ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polity
A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people organized for governance, such as the board of a corporation, the government of a country, or the government of a country subdivision. A polity may have various forms, such as a republic administered by an elected representative, the realm of a hereditary monarch, and others. The preeminent polities today are Westphalian sovereignty, Westphalian states and nation-states, commonly referred to as countries. Overview In geopolitics, a polity can manifest in different forms such as a State (polity), state, an empire, an international organization, a political organization or another identifiable, resource-manipulating organizational structure. A polity like a state does not need to be a Sovereignty, sovereign unit. The preeminent polities tod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner (born January 10, 1955) is a Canadian science fiction author. Early life and education Born in Simcoe, Ontario, he attended the University of Waterloo, where he published his first story, "The Phantom of the Operator", in 1984. Career Gardner has published science fiction short stories in a range of periodicals, including ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and ''Amazing Stories''. He has written a number of novels in a "League of Peoples" universe in which humans encounter highly advanced aliens that define murderers as "dangerous non-sentients" and kill them if they try to leave their solar system. He has also explored themes of gender in novels including ''Commitment Hour'' in which people reaching adulthood must choose their gender, and ''Vigilant (novel), Vigilant'', in which group marriages are traditional. Gardner is also an educator and technical writer, and published the textbook ''Learning UNIX'' in 1991. Awards In 1989, Gardner's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Some writers define sentience exclusively as the capacity for ''valenced'' (positive or negative) mental experiences, such as pain or pleasure. Sentience is an important concept in ethics, as the ability to experience happiness or suffering often forms a basis for determining which entities deserve Moral patienthood, moral consideration, particularly in utilitarianism. In Asian religions, the word "sentience" has been used to translate a variety of concepts. In science fiction, "sentience" is sometimes used interchangeably with "sapience", "self-awareness", or "consciousness". Sentience in philosophy "Sentience" was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '':wikt:sentiens, sentiens'' (feeling). In philosophy, different authors draw differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Race (fantasy)
A fantasy trope is a specific type of Trope (literature), literary trope (recurring theme) that occurs in fantasy fiction. Worldbuilding, plot, and characterization have many common conventions, many of them having ultimately originated in myth and folklore. J. R. R. Tolkien's Tolkien's legendarium, legendarium (and in particular, ''The Lord of the Rings'') for example, was inspired from a J.R.R. Tolkien's influences, variety of different sources including Germanic, Finnish, Greek, Celtic and Slavic myths. Literary fantasy works operate using these tropes, while others use them in a Fictional revisionism, revisionist manner, making the tropes over for various reasons such as for comic effect, and to create something fresh (a method that often generates new clichés). Good vs. Evil The conflict of good against evil is a theme in the many popular forms of fantasy; normally, evil characters invade and disrupt the good characters' lands. J. R. R. Tolkien delved into the nature of g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star System
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravity, gravitational attraction. It may sometimes be used to refer to a single star. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a ''star cluster'' or ''galaxy'', although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems. Star systems are not to be confused with planetary systems, which include planets and similar bodies (such as comets). Terminology A star system of two stars is known as a ''binary star'', ''binary star system'' or ''physical double star''. Systems with four or more components are rare, and are much less commonly found than those with 2 or 3. Multiple-star systems are called ''triple'', ''ternary'', or ''trinary'' if they contain three stars; ''quadruple'' or ''quaternary'' if they contain four stars; ''quintuple'' or ''quintenary'' with five stars; ''sextuple'' or ''sextenary'' with six stars; ''septuple'' or ''septenary'' with seven stars; and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planet
A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets by the most restrictive definition of the term: the terrestrial planets Mercury (planet), Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young protostar orbited by a protoplanetary disk. Planets grow in this disk by the gradual accumulation of material driven by gravity, a process called accretion (astrophysics), accretion. The word ''planet'' comes from the Greek () . In Classical antiquity, antiquity, this word referred to the Sun, Moon, and five points of light visible to the naked eye that moved across the background of the stars—namely, Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethics
Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics, and metaethics. Normative ethics aims to find general principles that govern how people should act. Applied ethics examines concrete ethical problems in real-life situations, such as abortion, treatment of animals, and Business ethics, business practices. Metaethics explores the underlying assumptions and concepts of ethics. It asks whether there are objective moral facts, how moral knowledge is possible, and how moral judgments motivate people. Influential normative theories are consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. According to consequentialists, an act is right if it leads to the best consequences. Deontologists focus on acts themselves, saying that they must adhere to Duty, duties, like t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the crime of killing a person with malice aforethought or with recklessness manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.") This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is killing committed in the absence of Malice (law), ''malice'',This is "malice" in a technical legal sense, not the more usual English sense denoting an emotional state. See malice (law). such as in the case of voluntary manslaughter brought about by reasonable Provocation (legal), provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, ''Invol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expendable
''Expendable'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.Avon Books; HarperCollins Canada; SFBC/AvoNova. Paperback edition 1997, Eos Books. It is the first book in a series involving the "League of Peoples", an assemblage of advanced species in the Milky Way galaxy. There is a "sub-series" involving just the character Festina Ramos, and sometimes the female Oar. The novel introduces many concepts in Gardner's "League of Peoples" universe, such as the Explorer Corps, Sentient Citizens, and the League itself. Backstory Through the course of the novel, Gardner provides a framework, background, and conceptual structure for his future narrative. In this backstory, humanity attains a technology of "spacetime distortion" to create an effective "star drive", thus leaving the Solar System to explore and colonize planets orbiting other stars. Through this exploration and colonization effo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commitment Hour
''Commitment Hour'' is a science fiction novel by Canadian writer James Alan Gardner, published in 1998. The novel is set in Gardner's "League of Peoples's" futuristic universe, and plays out in the small, isolated village of Tober Cove. Set on post-apocalyptic Earth, Tober Cove most resembles a rural, seventeenth century fishing village, with one exception: every year, everyone below the age of 21 changes gender. At the age of twenty-one, the people of the village must "commit" to being male, female or both in the form of a Hermaphrodite (a 'Neut'), forever. ''Commitment Hour'' follows the day leading up to the main character's hour of commitment. Tober Cove's society revolves around gender. Dualistic in structure, there is a matriarch and a patriarch, both of whom command equal - but different - power within the community. The patriarch is the head of the city council and the military, which also serves as the town's police force. The matriarch runs the town's health services, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vigilant (novel)
''Vigilant'' is a science fiction novel written by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1999 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.HarperCollins, Avon, SFBC/Avon-Eos; paperback edition 1999, Eos Books. The book is the third volume in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series, after ''Commitment Hour'' (1998). Backstory By the mid-25th century, humanity is integrated into a pan-galactic civilization called the League of Peoples, dominated by species of intelligent life evolved far beyond the human level. The benefits of this association are major advanced technologies, including effective interstellar travel, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and terraforming. The League's cardinal rule is that sentient beings who do not sufficiently respect life are not allowed to travel between solar systems. Synopsis Faye Smallwood lives on the colony planet of Demoth, which humans share with the flying squirrel-like Oolom. During her adolescence, the Oolom popula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunted (Gardner Novel)
''Hunted'' is a science fiction novel written by Canadian author James Alan Gardner, and published in the year 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.HarperCollins, Avon Books, HarperCollins Canada, SFBC/Avon; paperback edition 2000, Eos Books. The novel is the fourth in Gardner's " League of Peoples" series, after ''Expendable'' (1997), '' Commitment Hour'' (1998), and '' Vigilant'' (1999). Synopsis When new Explorer Corps recruit Edward York arrives on board the starship ''Willow'', he abruptly becomes its sole survivor: everyone else simultaneously drops dead, executed by the near-omnipotent League of Peoples for violating its rule that anyone without sufficient respect for life is not allowed to travel between solar systems. Alone on a ship full of corpses, Edward discovers a complex plot involving the alien Mandasars, in whose decades-long civil war he had a cryptic role. Reception At the '' SF Site'', Rich Horton considered it "a very fun novel to re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
